In-plane resonant-cavity infrared photodetectors with fully-depleted absorbers

ABSTRACT

Resonant-cavity infrared photodetector (RCID) devices that include a thin absorber layer contained entirely within the resonant cavity. In some embodiments, the absorber is a single type-II InAs—GaSb interface situated between an AlSb/InAs superlattice n-type region and a p-type AlSb/GaSb region. In other embodiments, the absorber region comprises quantum wells formed on an upper surface of the n-type region. In other embodiments, the absorber region comprises a “W”-structured quantum well situated between two barrier layers, the “W”-structured quantum well comprising a hole quantum well sandwiched between two electron quantum wells. In other embodiments, the RCID includes a thin absorber region and an nBn or pBp active core within a resonant cavity. In some embodiments, the RCID is configured to absorb incident light propagating in the direction of the epitaxial growth of the RCID structure, while in other embodiments, it absorbs light propagating in the epitaxial plane of the structure.

CROSS-REFERENCE

This Application is a Divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/924,385 filed on Mar. 19, 2018, which is a Continuation-in-Part ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/605,996 filed on May 26, 2017, whichis a Nonprovisional of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.62/342,260 filed on May 27, 2016. The prior applications, all referencescited therein, and all references cited in the present disclosure arehereby incorporated by reference into the present disclosure in theirentirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates to infrared (IR) photodetectors, particularly toIR photodetectors with dramatically improved sensitivity within a chosenspectral band due to absorption enhancement by a vertical resonantcavity in which the absorber region is fully depleted of electrons andholes.

BACKGROUND

A primary figure of merit for the performance of an IR photodetector isits normalized signal-to-noise ratio, or detectivity D*. When thedetectivity is dominated by the dark electrical noise, the importantfunctional dependence isD*∝QE/λJ _(b) ^(1/2),  (1)where QE is the device external quantum efficiency, representing thefraction of incident photons that produce an electron-hole pair that iscollected to produce electrical current, λ is the wavelength, and J_(b)is the dark current density (in the absence of any optical signal orbackground) at the operating bias. If the operating bias is zero, thedark current density is replaced by kT/R₀A, where R₀A is theresistance-area product at zero bias. The proportionality relation inEquation (1) also depends on some fundamental constants that are notaffected by the device design.

Several previous works have discussed and simulated the potentialadvantages of resonant cavity infrared detectors (RCIDs). See J. G. A.Wehner et al., “Resonant Cavity-Enhanced Mercury Cadmium TellurideDetectors,” Journal of ELECTRONIC MATERIALS, Vol. 33, No. 6, 2004, pp.604-608; see also L. Jun et al., “Design of a resonant-cavity-enhancedGaInAsSb/GaSb photodetector,” Sem. Sci. Technol. 19, 690 (2004).

RCIDs typically form a resonant cavity along the vertical axis bypositioning two mirrors above and below the absorber. Thanks to themirrors, any incident light with a wavelength tuned to the resonant modeof the cavity makes multiple passes through the absorber. This can allowa thin absorber positioned near the antinode of the cavity electricfield to absorb most of the incident light for high QE, even when theabsorber is much thinner than the absorption length without enhancement(1/α₀).

The block schematic in FIG. 1 illustrates aspects of a genericresonant-cavity detector structure according to the prior art,configured for illumination from the top side thereof by light source110. As can be seen in FIG. 1, such a structure in accordance with theprior art includes a bottom contact layer 102 on a bottom surface of ann-type substrate 101 (or otherwise positioned below the absorber region106), a semiconductor bottom mirror 103, an n-type region 104 and p-typeregion 105 (in alternative configurations the p-type region may bepositioned below the absorber sand the n-type region above) with a thinabsorber region 106 between the n- and p-type regions, and a dielectrictop mirror 108 (which may alternatively be a second semiconductormirror). The top and bottom mirrors 103/108 form a resonant cavity 100that significantly enhances the net absorption for high QE even when theabsorber is much thinner than the 2-10 μm required to achieve high QE ina conventional broadband detector that does not employ a resonantcavity.

In other configurations known to the art, illumination is from thesubstrate side. In such cases, the “bottom” contact may be formed bypatterning an annular ring on the substrate side of the structure(possibly after the substrate has been removed by polishing and/oretching), and the contact metallization deposited on top of the mesa mayform part of the “top” mirror.

The detector mesa (which is typically circular or square) is etched tobelow the active absorber region 106, and in configurations employingillumination from the top an annular top metal contact layer 109 isdeposited around its perimeter. Before metallization of the top contact,the mesa sidewalls and exposed region outside the mesa and below thejunction (formed by the mesa etch) are coated with a dielectric 107 suchas SiN to prevent shorting of the junction.

The QE at the cavity's resonance wavelength λ_(res) is given by:

$\begin{matrix}{{{QE}\left( \lambda_{\lambda\;{res}} \right)} = {\eta_{c}\frac{{{SA}\left( {1 - R_{1}} \right)}\left( {1 + R_{2}} \right)}{\left( {1 - \sqrt{R_{1}R_{2}}} \right)^{2}}}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

where R₁ and R₂ are the reflectivities of the top and bottom mirrors,respectively, S is the standing-wave enhancement factor that ranges from0 to 2, depending on the position of the thin absorber with respect tothe antinode of the cavity electric field, η_(c) is the carriercollection efficiency, which is expected to be nearly unity for the thinabsorber, and A is the absorbance per pass in the absence of the cavity.The absorbance A of a thin absorber generally has a limit of A=α₀d for abulk-like absorber that does not reside within a resonant cavity, whereα₀(λ) is the absorption coefficient, and A=Mα for an absorber comprisingone or more quantum wells (QWs), where M is the number of QWs and a is adimensionless fraction representing the absorbance per pass by a singleQW.

To maximize the photon absorbance within a relatively small spectralrange near the resonance peak, the reflectivity R₂ of the bottom mirrorshould be as close to unity as possible, while the reflectivity R₁ ofthe top mirror can be varied to obtain the desired tradeoff betweenspectral width and absorption enhancement.

When R₁ and R₂ are close to unity, the QE can be high even when theabsorber is extremely thin, e.g., a single QW. Another consequence ofthe cavity's high finesse is that the spectral linewidth over which theabsorption is strongly enhanced narrows correspondingly. The full widthat half maximum (FWHM) of the QE spectral peak (in wavelength units) is:

$\begin{matrix}{{\delta\lambda} = {\frac{\left( {1 - \sqrt{R_{1}R_{2}}} \right)^{2}}{{\pi\left( {R_{1}R_{2}} \right)}^{1/4}}{FSR}}} & (3)\end{matrix}$

where FSR=λ_(res) ²/(2 nL) is the free spectral range of the cavity, andn is the refractive index. The effective cavity length L includes boththe thickness of the region between the mirrors and the penetrationdepths into the mirrors, which are non-negligible if the mirrors arerealized as quarter-wavelength stacks.

If we further assume perfect collection of the photogenerated carriers(η_(c)=1) and that the thin absorber is positioned exactly at theresonant cavity's antinode (S=2), the on-resonance QE from Equation (2)and the FWHM of the spectral peak from Equation (3) become:

$\begin{matrix}{{{QE}\left( \lambda_{res} \right)} = {\frac{4{A\left( {1 - R_{1}} \right)}}{\left( {1 - \sqrt{R_{1}}} \right)^{2}}\mspace{14mu}{and}}} & (4) \\{\frac{\delta\lambda}{\lambda_{res}} = {\frac{\left( {1 - \sqrt{R_{1}}} \right)^{2}}{\pi\; R_{1}^{1/4}}\frac{\lambda_{res}}{2{nL}}}} & (5)\end{matrix}$

For broadband applications such as most instances of thermal imaging, itis disadvantageous to incorporate the detector's absorber region into aresonant cavity, since the loss of signal resulting from the muchnarrower spectral response more than offsets the absorbance enhancementprovided by the resonant cavity. However, if the signal one wishes todetect is already narrow, the employment of a resonant cavity centeredon the wavelength of interest can substantially increase the detectivityD* while retaining high QE, since the dark current is minimized by thevery thin absorber region. A classic example for which the RCIDconfiguration may be advantageous is laser-based chemical sensing of atrace gas, whose unique and narrow (<<0.1 nm) infrared absorption linesprovide a fingerprint for identifying the given species and quantifyingits concentration.

Challenges can arise when the resonant cavity approach is extended tolonger wavelengths in the shortwave infrared (SWIR), midwave infrared(MWIR), and longwave infrared (LWIR) regions. The goal is tosubstantially enhance the detectivity, within a narrow spectral band,over that attainable using a state-of-the-art conventional broadband IRdetector. While several RCIDs operating in the MWIR have beendemonstrated previously (see below), to date none has exhibited aperformance level competitive with that of a state-of-the-artconventional broadband IR detector operating at the same temperature andwavelength.

To our knowledge, all of the previous attempts to exploit aresonant-cavity absorption enhancement at a wavelength beyond 2.5 μmhave performed at levels well below the state-of-the-art forconventional broadband IR detectors. Most of the previous RCIDdemonstrations have employed the lead-salt material system. See, e.g.,M. Arnold et al., “Lead salt mid-IR photodetectors with narrowlinewidth,” J. Cryst. Growth 278 (2005) 739-742; F. Felder et al.,“Tunable lead-chalcogenide on Si resonant cavity enhanced midinfrareddetector,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 101102 (2007) (“Felder 2007”); F.Felder et al., “Lead Salt Resonant Cavity Enhanced Detector with MEMSMirror,” Phys Proc. 3 (2010) 1127-1131 (“Felder 2010”); J. Wang et al.,“Resonant-cavity-enhanced mid-infrared photodetector on a siliconplatform,” Optics Express, Vol. 18, No. 12, 12890-12896 (2010); and J.Wang et al., “Monolithically integrated, resonant-cavity-enhanceddual-band mid-infrared photodetector on silicon,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 100,211106 (2012).

However, conventional lead-salt IR detector materials generally sufferfrom short Shockley-Read lifetimes and high unintentional backgrounddoping levels, as compared to state-of-the-art HgCdTe and III-V IRdetector materials. It is therefore not surprising that resonant-cavitylead-salt detectors are limited by similar materials-related issues.HgCdTe-based resonant-cavity designs have been proposed, see J. G. A.Werner et al., “Resonant Cavity-Enhanced Mercury Cadmium TellurideDetectors,” J. Electron. Mat. 33, 604 (2004), but to our knowledge havenot been put into practice. Moreover, a monolithic semiconductor mirrortechnology suitable for a HgCdTe RCID has yet to be developed.

The III-V demonstrations to date have employed thick bulk absorberregions (typically d≈1 μm), which precluded significant enhancement ofthe detectivity. See Y. Shi et al., “Resonant Cavity EnhancedHeterojunction Phototransistors Based on GaInAsSb—AlGaAsSb Grown byMolecular Beam Epitaxy,” IEEE Phot. Tech. Lett., Vol. 10, No. 2, 258-260(1998); A. M. Green et al., λ≈3 μm InAs resonant-cavity-enhancedphotodetector,” Semicond. Sci. Technol. 18 (2003) 964-967; and A. M.Green et al., “Resonant-cavity-enhanced photodetectors and LEDs in themid-infrared,” Physica E 20 (2004) 531-535. Since they also employedcavities with relatively low front-mirror reflectivity (R₁<<1), thosedevices should be viewed as proof-of-concept demonstrations that werenever intended to advance state-of-the-art performance.

In addition, some enhancement may, in fact, be achievable usingconventional III-V bulk (e.g., InAs and InAsSb) or superlattice (e.g.,InAs—Ga(In)Sb and InAs—InAsSb) absorbers in p-n junction or barrier (nBnand pBp) configurations from the prior art. See P. Martyniuk et al.,“New concepts in infrared photodetector designs,” Appl. Phys. Rev. 1,041102 (2014).

Because the resonant cavity configuration provides a strong enhancementof the net absorption over that resulting from a single pass of thelight through the absorber, the absorber thickness can be shrunk to aslittle as ≈10 nm (e.g., a single QW) without sacrificing QE at theresonant wavelength. Therefore, because the dark current is reducedproportionally, the resonant cavity configuration will either providehigher detectivity D* at a given operating temperature, or maintain atarget D* at higher operating temperature than is attainable using aconventional broadband IR detector.

SUMMARY

This summary is intended to introduce, in simplified form, a selectionof concepts that are further described in the Detailed Description. Thissummary is not intended to identify key or essential features of theclaimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid indetermining the scope of the claimed subject matter. Instead, it ismerely presented as a brief overview of the subject matter described andclaimed herein.

The present invention provides resonant-cavity infrared photodetector(RCID) devices that include a thin absorber layer contained entirelywithin the resonant cavity.

In some embodiments of an RCID in accordance with the present invention,the absorber region is a single type-II InAs—GaSb interface situatedbetween an n-type region comprising an AlSb/InAs n-type superlattice anda p-type AlSb/GaSb region.

In some embodiments, the absorber region comprises one or more quantumwells formed on an upper surface of the n-type region.

In some embodiments, the absorber region comprises a “W”-structuredquantum well situated between two barrier layers, the “W”-structuredquantum well comprising a hole quantum well sandwiched between twoelectron quantum wells.

In some embodiments, an RCID in accordance with the present inventionincludes a thin absorber region and an nBn or pBp active core within aresonant cavity.

In some embodiments, an RCID in accordance with the present invention isconfigured to detect light that propagates along the plane of theepitaxial structure rather than along its growth axis. Such an in-planeRCID structure can be used, for example, as the detection element of acompact on-chip chemical sensing package for sensing trace chemicalspecies in a gas sample.

In some embodiments, an in-plane RCID can be part of a hybrid waveguidethat includes a III-V RCID photodiode structure along with some othermaterial within the waveguide, where the waveguide is used to inputlight propagating along the plane of the epitaxial structure into theRCID and to provide a waveguide for light propagating within the RCID.

In some embodiments, the p-region of the III-V RCID photodiode or pBpstructure of the hybrid waveguide is ion-bombarded to suppress currentflow within the bombarded regions. This may be beneficial, for example,in suppressing dark currents associated with surface leakage at theetched sidewalls of the patterned device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block schematic depicting the epitaxial layering and mesastructure for an exemplary generic resonant cavity infrared detector(RCID) structure in accordance with the prior art.

FIG. 2 is a plot depicting the conduction band minimum and valence bandmaximum energy levels, along with the Fermi level energy, for anexemplary RCID having a thin absorber region incorporated into a p-njunction in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plot illustrating, on an expanded scale, the energy bandprofiles and electron and hole ground state subband energy levels for anexemplary absorber, n region, and p region of an RCID structure of thetype illustrated in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a plot illustrating energy band profiles and energy levels foranother exemplary embodiment of a RCID having a thin absorber, n region,and p region in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a plot illustrating energy band profiles and energy levels foranother exemplary embodiment of a thin absorber, n region, and p regionfor an RCID in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a plot illustrating energy band profiles and energy levels foran exemplary RCID having a thin absorber region and an nBn active corewithin a resonant cavity in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a plot depicting a reflection spectrum calculated for anexemplary RCID having a thin absorber region in accordance with thepresent invention.

FIG. 8 is a plot depicting a quantum efficiency spectrum (assumingη_(c)=1) calculated for another exemplary RCID having a thin absorberregion in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block schematic illustrating multiple mesas with differentresonance wavelengths for another exemplary resonant cavity infrareddetector (RCID) having a thin absorber region in accordance with thepresent invention.

FIG. 10 is a block schematic illustrating the mesa and external mirrorstructure for another exemplary embodiment of an RCID having a thinabsorber region in accordance with the present invention.

FIGS. 11A and 11B are block schematics illustrating aspects of exemplaryembodiments of a hybrid waveguide that includes a III-V RCID configuredto detect an optical signal propagating along the plane of the epitaxialstructure.

FIGS. 12A-12D are block schematics illustrating aspects of an exemplaryembodiment of a chemical sensor including a hybrid waveguideincorporating an RCID photodiode configured to detect an optical signalpropagating along the plane of the epitaxial structure in accordancewith the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a block schematic illustrating an additional exemplaryembodiment of a hybrid waveguide that includes a III-V RCID photodiodeconfigured to detect an optical signal propagating along the plane ofthe epitaxial structure.

FIG. 14 is a block schematic illustrating aspects of an additionalexemplary embodiment of a chemical sensor including a hybrid waveguideincorporating an RCID photodiode configured to detect an optical signalpropagating along the plane of the epitaxial structure.

FIG. 15 is a block schematic illustrating an additional exemplaryembodiment of a hybrid waveguide incorporating an RCID photodiode inaccordance with the present invention, in which portions of the p-regionof the waveguide have been ion-bombarded to create an electrical barrierto current flow within the bombarded regions.

FIG. 16 is a block schematic illustrating an additional exemplaryembodiment of a hybrid waveguide incorporating an RCID photodiode inaccordance with the present invention, in which portions of the p-regionof the waveguide have been ion-bombarded to create an electrical barrierto surface current flow within the bombarded regions.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The aspects and features of the present invention summarized above canbe embodied in various forms. The following description shows, by way ofillustration, combinations and configurations in which the aspects andfeatures can be put into practice. It is understood that the describedaspects, features, and/or embodiments are merely examples, and that oneskilled in the art may utilize other aspects, features, and/orembodiments or make structural and functional modifications withoutdeparting from the scope of the present disclosure.

For example, the materials and the material layer thicknesses describedherein are merely exemplary, and other materials and other materiallayer thicknesses may be employed as appropriate.

The following discussion assumes that the absorption of incident photonsis dominated by interband processes that create an electron-hole pair.However, the extension to other processes such as intersubbandabsorption will be obvious to one skilled in the art.

In the absence of gain, quantum efficiency (QE) is limited to a maximumvalue of unity. For a high QE to be realized, the thickness d of theabsorbing layer of the photodetector must be comparable to or exceed1/α₀(λ), where α₀(λ) is the absorption coefficient, and either theminority-carrier diffusion length L_(D) or the depletion width W_(d)must be comparable to or greater than the absorber thickness. The lattercondition assures that most of the electrons and holes generated by theoptical signal are collected.

Typical absorption coefficients for the most common bulk, quantum well(QW), and superlattice (SL) III-V absorber materials that are sensitivein the short-wave infrared (SWIR) (2-3 μm), mid-wave infrared (MWIR)(3-5 μm), and long-wave infrared (LWIR) (8-14 μm) spectral regions rangefrom about 1000 (for SLs in the LWIR) to 5000 cm⁻¹ in the SWIR. Thisimplies that for a conventional interband IR detector structure torealize high QE, its absorber must be 2-10 μm thick. This is typicallymuch greater than the width of the depletion region because of thepresence of substantial background doping levels in narrow-gapmaterials.

We will first consider the example of a photodiode detector thatcollects minority carriers across a p-n junction. However it will beobvious to one skilled in the art that the principles discussed mayeasily be generalized to other geometries that do not contain p-njunctions, such as nBn or pBp majority-carrier-barrier structures,described below.

Since the usual absorber thickness of 2-10 μm in a conventionalbroadband IR detector significantly exceeds the typical depletion-layerthickness for a p-n junction, most or all of the absorber occupies thequasi-neutral region (on either the p or n side of the junction), inwhich the internal electric field is low. At low fields, the dominantfundamental dark transport mechanism is most often the current due tothe diffusion of thermally generated carriers, althoughgeneration-recombination (G-R), parasitic tunneling, and surface leakagecurrents can also contribute significantly in non-ideal devices.

It is impossible to discriminate between the useful diffusion ofphotoexcited carriers (generated by the optical signal to be detected)and the competing diffusion of thermally excited carriers (noise).Consequently, the mechanism fundamentally limiting the minimumdetectable signal is the diffusion dark current density at the operatingbias. While the other parasitic processes mentioned above are notfundamental, they can contribute significantly for some design classes.In the limits of absorber thickness much shorter than the diffusionlength (L_(D)α₀>>1) and the depletion width much narrower than theabsorber thickness (W_(d)<<d), the diffusion current is given byJ _(b) ≈qdn _(i) ²/(τ_(m) N),  (6)where q is the fundamental electron charge, d is the absorber thickness,n_(i)∝exp(−E_(g)/2 kT) is the intrinsic carrier density, τ_(m) is theminority-carrier lifetime, and N is the doping density. It follows thatthe dark current density increases strongly with rising temperature, andscales approximately linearly with the absorber thickness (up to thediffusion length). The resulting dependence of J_(b) on T sets a limiton the maximum operating temperature for which the dark current noise isno greater than the optical background associated with blackbodyradiation. The optical signal must compete with the dark current densityand the optical blackbody background as the two fundamental noisesources that limit the minimum detectable signal.

It follows that within the limits specified above for which Eq. (6) isvalid (L_(D)α₀>>1 and W_(d)<<d), if the absorber can be thinnedsubstantially, e.g., to a thickness d of 100 nm or less rather thanseveral μm, the diffusion dark current at a given temperature woulddramatically decrease. Moreover, the dark current will continue todecrease if the absorber thickness is decreased further such that theabsorber becomes fully depleted, which occurs if its thickness becomessmaller than the depletion width (W_(d)>d). In that limit the darkcurrent is typically limited by the generation-recombination (G-R)mechanism. When W_(d)>d and the narrow-gap absorber is surrounded bywider-gap p and n regions, the G-R current density is given byJ _(b) ≈qdn _(i)/τ_(c),  (7)where τ_(c) is the carrier lifetime within the depletion region. Becausethe depletion region is defined by a relatively high internal electricfield, the carrier lifetime in that environment may be somewhat shorterthan the minority-carrier lifetime τ_(m) in an n or p region with thesame bandgap. As in the more conventional case of Eq. (6) above, in thefully-depleted limit of Eq. (7) the dark current density again increasesstrongly with rising temperature, and scales approximately linearly withthe absorber thickness. And again, the resulting dependence of J_(b) onT sets a limit on the maximum operating temperature for which the darkcurrent noise is no greater than the optical background associated withblackbody radiation.

While it is apparent from Eqs. (6) and (7) for different limits of theabsorber thickness relative to the depletion width that significantlythinning the absorber can substantially reduce the dark current, in aconventional photodetector architecture this would be disadvantageousbecause most of the signal photons would pass through the absorberwithout being absorbed, and hence QE<<1.

It has been demonstrated in the prior art that this degradation of QEcan be avoided by placing the absorber within a vertical resonantcavity, which significantly enhances the absorption per unit length forwavelengths near the cavity resonance. This strategy has beenimplemented successfully at telecommunication wavelengths (λ=1.3-1.6μm), where the primary motivation is usually to increase the detectorspeed by reducing the absorber thickness across which the photogeneratedminority carriers must diffuse. See M. Selim Ünlü et al., “ResonantCavity Enhanced Photonic Devices,” J. Appl. Phys. 78, 607 (1995). Whilethose devices benefit from the general advantages of the resonant cavityarchitecture as known to the prior art, no previous reports havediscussed, proposed, or implemented full carrier depletion or the otherdefining features of the designs comprising the present invention.

In many infrared detection applications, such as focal plane arrays forIR imaging, the objective is to maximize the sensitivity to inputsignals spanning a broad spectral bandwidth such as the entire SWIR,MWIR, or LWIR band. In such applications, the resonant cavity approachis disadvantageous, since the detectivity is enhanced only within anarrow spectral window corresponding to the cavity resonance, whereasthe net broadband signal is reduced. On the other hand, the resonantcavity approach may be quite beneficial in other applications thatrequire sensitivity to only a narrow range of wavelengths, such as todetect a laser signal or in hyperspectral detection. In thoseapplications, a broadband response is actually disadvantageous becauseany sensitivity to wavelengths outside the narrow spectral band ofinterest represents optical background noise.

In the present disclosure, we will assume that the optical signal isincident from the “top,” i.e., from above the epitaxial detectorstructure that is grown “on top of” a substrate. However, generalizationto the alternative case where the signal is incident from the “bottom,”i.e., the substrate side (with the substrate intact in some embodimentsor removed in others), will be obvious to one skilled in the art.

As noted above, some resonant-cavity absorption enhancement atwavelengths beyond 2.5 μm may, in fact, be achievable using conventionalIII-V bulk (e.g., InAs and InAsSb) or superlattice (e.g., InAs—Ga(In)Sband InAs—InAsSb) absorbers in p-n junction or barrier (nBn and pBp)configurations from the prior art. See Martyniuk et al., supra.

However, no previous reports for either conventional or resonant-cavityIR detectors have proposed or implemented the defining features of thedesigns comprising the present invention, which employs configurationsthat would be either unfeasible or disadvantageous in a conventionalbroadband IR detector.

Even though the diffusion current density that typically controls thedark current of absorbers that are much thicker than the depletion width(see Eq. (6) above) can be suppressed by moderate doping of theabsorber, the carrier lifetimes relevant to the fully-depleted andnon-fully-depleted cases are not necessarily the same. In someembodiments of the invention, the lifetime is controlled by Augerrecombination, which is strongly suppressed by depleting the absorberregion of both electrons and holes as compared to a quasi-neutralabsorber (see Eq. (7) above).

Because the minority-carrier lifetime in a conventional non-depleted IRmaterial with high intrinsic carrier density tends to be limited by theAuger process, whose rate scales approximately as the cube of thecarrier density, τ_(c) in the depletion region can exceed τ_(m) byorders of magnitude if most of the extrinsic and intrinsic electrons andholes can be depleted from the absorber. Furthermore, since thedark-current density of Eq. (7) is proportional to n_(i) rather thann_(i) ² for the diffusion current of Eq. (6), the increase of J_(b) withoperating temperature becomes much more gradual. These considerationshold if the detector is a photodiode in which the absorber region issurrounded by n-type and p-type regions with significantly larger energygaps than the absorber. See I. Vurgaftman, E. H. Aifer, C. L. Canedy, J.G. Tischler, J. R. Meyer, J. H. Warner, E. M. Jackson, G. Hildebrandt,and G. J. Sullivan, “Graded band gap for dark-current suppression inlong-wave infrared W-structured type-II superlattice photodiodes,” Appl.Phys. Lett. 89, 121114 (2006); and C. L. Canedy, E. H. Aifer, J. H.Warner, I. Vurgaftman, E. M. Jackson, J. G. Tischler, S. P. Powell, K.Olver, J. R. Meyer, and W. E. Tennant, “Controlling dark current intype-II superlattice photodiodes,” Infrared Phys. Technol. 52, 326(2009). In such a photodiode, thermal generation in the n- and p-typeregions become negligible because they scale as exp(−E_(g)/kT).

Configurations that allow the absorber of an IR photodiode to be placedentirely within the depletion region of the p-n junction at low biashave not been discussed previously. To maintain high QE, the absorber ina conventional broadband IR detector (such as the structure discussed inVurgaftman et al., supra) must be several microns thick, which is fargreater than any depletion width induced by realistic p- and n-typedoping levels. While it is possible in principle to fully deplete thethick absorber region of a conventional photodiode (see D. Lee, M.Carmody, E. Piquette, P. Dreiske, A. Chen, A. Yulius, D. Edwall, S.Bhargava, M. Zandian, and W. E. Tennant, “High-operating temperatureHgCdTe: A vision for the near future,” J. Electronic Materials 45, 4587(2016)), it is generally impractical since it requires unrealisticallylow doping levels and/or the application of a very high bias withvoltage scaling as d².

On the other hand, the absorber of the present invention is insertedentirely into the depletion region, which is possible even at zero biasbecause the RCID enhancement allows the absorber to be very thin (≤100nm, and in many embodiments as thin as 10 nm) while retaining high QE.This will substantially suppress Auger recombination and its inverseprocess, impact ionization. For most III-V IR detector materials, Augerprocesses dominate the dark current at higher operating temperatures.The substantial suppression of Auger recombination up to temperaturesapproaching ambient will be a significant advantage in practical systemsfor chemical sensing and other applications, since it will becomepossible to reach background-limited sensitivity at a temperature thatdoes not require cryogenic cooling.

In some embodiments, various barriers or transition superlattices mayalso be inserted between the absorber and the main portions of the n-and p-regions. Alternatively, the doping level in any region may bevaried as a function of position. Such variants may serve to minimizethermal generation, fine-tune the band alignments, and/or aid carriertransport between the absorber and the n- and p-regions.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates the spatial profiles for theconduction-band minimum and valence-band maximum energy levels (solid),along with the Fermi level (dashed) for an exemplary resonant-cavitydetector having a 10-nm-thick thin absorber surrounded by n- andp-regions in accordance with the present invention. It will be notedthat in this as in all other band diagrams in the FIGURES of the presentapplication, the spatial dimensions of the FIGURE are not drawn toscale.

In the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2, the doping levels in the n- andp-type regions are both 10¹⁷ cm⁻³, although a range of doping levels maybe employed on either side of the junction. In this embodiment, theabsorber is assumed to be undoped, although the carriers generated bytypical unintentional doping levels (e.g., ≤10¹⁶ cm⁻³) will be sweptaway by the internal field.

It is apparent from FIG. 2 that the internal electric fields representedby the band curvatures will deplete the absorber of electrons and holesby sweeping them into the adjacent n- and p-regions, respectively. Theinternal field will also at least partly deplete the intrinsic carriersof both types, whose densities vary strongly with the temperature ofoperation. Thus for quasi-thermal-equilibrium, far fewer carriers willbe present in this thin absorber than the normal intrinsic populationpresent in the much thicker absorber of a broadband detector. Thisdepletion of the carrier population will substantially suppress theAuger contribution to the dark current, as discussed above.

However, if the absorber has a net p-type doping and the depletion ofmajority holes is incomplete, in accordance with the invention it may beadvantageous to design the structure such that the conduction-bandminimum in the absorber is more nearly aligned with the conduction bandin the n-region (at left in the figure). This adjustment will serve tomake it more energetically favorable for majority holes in the absorberto deplete into the p-region that now has a larger offset. Consequently,Auger recombination will be strongly suppressed because very fewcarriers of either type remain in the absorber at zero bias.

Conversely, if the absorber has a net n-type doping and the majorityelectrons do not fully deplete, in accordance with the invention it isadvantageous to design the structure such that the valence band in theabsorber is more nearly aligned with the valence band in the p-region(at right in the figure).

In a third case, if the population of intrinsic electrons and holesexceeds the extrinsic doping level at the temperature of operation, inaccordance with the invention the bands in the various regions of thestructure should be aligned such that the conduction-band minimum isaligned or somewhat higher in the active region than in the n-region andthe valence band maximum is aligned or somewhat lower in the activeregion than in the p-region, so that both electrons and holes tend toflow out of the active region and deplete it at zero bias. This is thecase illustrated in FIG. 2.

Some fine tuning of the band alignments may be required to achieve themaximum suppression of Auger recombination, which will also depend onthe relative Auger coefficients for processes involving two electronsand one hole (γ₃ ^(nnp)) as compared to those that involve two holes andone electron (γ₃ ^(ppn)). If γ₃ ^(ppn)>γ₃ ^(ppn), for example, holeextraction from the active region has a greater effect on the Augerrecombination rate than electron extraction.

For both types of net doping in the absorber, in accordance with theinvention if the absorber is not fully depleted at zero bias, theapplication of a reverse bias may complete the depletion of electronsand holes to assure that Auger recombination is suppressed. Generally,the required bias will be relatively small because the region to bedepleted is quite thin.

Besides providing the potential for substantially suppressing Augerrecombination, the extreme thinness of the RCID absorber in accordancewith the present invention considerably broadens the design space toinclude options that are unavailable to detectors with conventionalthick absorbers.

The most extreme example is an absorber consisting of a single type-IIinterface occupying the boundary between the n- and p-type regions ofthe diode.

FIG. 3 illustrates the energy band structure of an exemplary embodimentof such an RCID in accordance with the present invention, where theabsorber region consists of a single type-II InAs—GaSb interface, wherethe active InAs layer has a thickness of 30 Å and the active GaSb layerhas a thickness of 20 Å.

In the exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, the n-region is anInAs—AlSb superlattice that is strain-compensated to match the latticeconstant of the GaSb substrate. The InAs layers in the superlattice areslightly thinner than the active InAs QW of the absorber. Thisrelationship serves to place the lowest SL miniband at a slightly higherenergy than the lowest conduction subband of the active QW. The activehole QW is a single GaSb layer bounded by an AlSb barrier whose highestvalence subband lies somewhat lower in energy than the valence bandmaximum of the p-region.

The p-region in this exemplary embodiment is p-GaSb. Again, other bulkor superlattice materials may be substituted so long as the bandalignments approximate the optimal conditions discussed above and thep-region conduction-band minimum is much higher than the absorberconduction band.

The total absorber thickness in this exemplary structure is 8 nm,counting the AlSb barriers on each side of the active InAs and GaSblayers. The active optical transitions in this structure are betweenvalence states having wavefunctions concentrated mostly in the activeGaSb QW and electron states with wavefunctions concentrated mostly inthe active InAs QW.

Assuming operation at 300 K, the energy gap for a diode having astructure as shown in FIG. 3, with an absorber thickness of 8 nm, is 320meV (λ_(co)=3.8 μm). For a resonance wavelength of λ_(res)=3.4 μm, thecalculated absorption per pass (A) is 0.17%. With R₂≈100%, a top mirrorreflectivity of R₁=97.5% then yields QE≈80% and δλ≈4 nm.

Besides strongly suppressing the dark current associated with Augerrecombination by depleting electrons and holes from the absorber, animportant advantage of a structure in accordance with the embodimentillustrated in FIG. 3 is that it provides the potential to absolutelyminimize thermal generation noise. Since thermal generation in the n-and p-type regions is negligible due to their very large energy gaps,the only place in the entire detector structure where the presence ofdefects can induce dark current associated with Shockley-Readrecombination is in the immediate vicinity of the single narrow-gapInAs—GaSb interface (as determined by the overlap of the electron andhole wavefunctions). As long as this interface region is of highquality, the dark current for a given cut-off wavelength and temperaturemay be suppressed to an unprecedented level.

A possible disadvantage of a structure in accordance with thisembodiment is that the absorption at the single interface is relativelyweak because there is limited overlap of the relevant electron and holewavefunctions residing mostly in the active InAs and GaSb QWs,respectively. Nevertheless, as described above the simulated absorptionper pass of 0.17% is sufficient to provide a high QE using a realistictop mirror reflectivity. In other words, the resonant cavity enhancesthe useful photogeneration, but not the deleterious thermal generation.

A further advantage of this embodiment of the invention, as well as manyof the others discussed below, over the thick absorbers employed in theprior art is that the absorber need not be carefully strain-compensatedor lattice-matched to the GaSb (or some other such as InAs) substrate toavoid dislocations that can short the device or otherwise degrade itsperformance. It is only important to assure that the absorber thicknessnot exceed the critical value for dislocation-free growth associatedwith its particular design.

Numerous variations on the embodiment illustrated by the band diagramshown in FIG. 3, in which the RCID absorber consists of a singleinterface, will be obvious to one skilled in the art.

For example, the energy gap (and cut-off wavelength) can be easilyvaried by adjusting the thickness of the active InAs QW, so as toincrease or decrease the quantum confinement energy. In other cases, inorder to minimize the dark current, it may be advantageous to design thecut-off wavelength for the absorber to be just close enough to theresonance wavelength of the cavity so that the needed value ofabsorption per pass can be achieved. In other cases it may bestraightforward to replace the InAs—AlSb n-type superlattice withInAs—AlInSb, InAsSb—AlSb or one of many other variations. Alternatively,a bulk material such as InGaAsSb may be employed. The active InAs layermay be replaced by a ternary alloy such as InAsSb or a quaternary alloysuch as InGaAsSb. In other embodiments, as discussed above, thestructure may be redesigned for optimal performance in the cases of netn-type doping of the active region or when the intrinsic carrierpopulation exceeds the extrinsic doping level at the operatingtemperature of interest.

On the p-side of the single-interface absorber of FIG. 3, alternativeconfigurations may eliminate the GaSb QW or replace it with GaInSb,GaAlSb, or some other related alloy. The barrier compositions andthickness may also be varied, and transition superlattices may beincorporated on one or both sides of the absorber to control thewavefunction profiles, band alignments, carrier transport, anddistribution of the quasi-equilibrium carrier populations. In addition,as discussed below, when Shockley-Read rather than Auger recombinationdominates the diffusion current, it may be advantageous to position thesingle-interface absorber in a quasi-neutral region of a p-n junction oran nBn structure, rather than within the depletion region of thejunction.

As discussed below, if the absorber has a net p-type dopingconcentration that exceeds the intrinsic carrier concentration, theconduction-band minimum in the n-region should roughly align with theconduction-band minimum in the absorber (the case shown in FIG. 3).

On the other hand, if the absorber has a net n-type doping that exceedsthe intrinsic concentration, the conduction-band minimum in the n-regionshould be somewhat lower than that in the absorber so as to make it moreenergetically favorable for majority electrons in the absorber todeplete into the n-region at zero bias.

In both cases the n-region conduction band should be low enough to allowthe efficient collection of photoexcited electrons, but not so low thatexcessive thermal generation is induced between n-region electron statesand absorber hole states.

Numerous variants involving other n-type SL constituents such asInAs—AlInSb, or a lattice-matched quaternary alloy such as InGaAsSb orInAlAsSb, may also be used to form the n-region as long as itsconduction band is optimally aligned as discussed above and its valenceband is much lower than the absorber valence band.

For example, in accordance with the invention, the alignment shown forthe embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3 is optimal when the net doping ofthe absorber is p-type and exceeds the intrinsic carrier concentrationat the device operating temperature. On the other hand, if the netdoping of the absorber is n-type and exceeds the intrinsicconcentration, the valence-band maxima in the absorber and p-regionshould roughly align. In the third case, in which the intrinsic carrierconcentration exceeds the extrinsic doping level in the active region,the alignment of the valence band maximum in the p-region relative tothat in the absorber should lie somewhere between the other two limit

Other embodiments of the invention employ ultra-thin absorbersconsisting of one or a few type-I or type-II QWs rather than the singleinterface of FIG. 3.

The band diagram in FIG. 4 illustrates aspects of an exemplaryembodiment of an RCID incorporating such an absorber, where the absorberis in the form of a single type-II InAs/Ga(In)Sb/InAs “W”-structuredmultiple QW heterostructure comprising an InAs electron QW, a GaInSbhole QW, and InAs electron QW, with the W-structured QW being sandwichedbetween two AlSb barriers on either side. See J. R. Meyer et al.,“Type-II quantum-well lasers for the mid-wavelength infrared,” Appl.Phys. Lett. 67 (6), pp. 757-759 (1995); and E. H. Aifer et al.,“W-structured type-II superlattice long-wave infrared photodiodes withhigh quantum efficiency,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 053519 (2006)); see alsoU.S. Pat. No. 5,793,787, to Meyer et al., entitled “Type II Quantum WellLaser with Enhanced Optical Matrix” (1998). As in FIG. 3, the bandbending associated with charge transfer between the different layers andregions is not shown.

Thus, in the exemplary embodiment of such a structure illustrated inFIG. 4, the absorber is a single type-II “W”-structured QW consisting ofa 16 Å InAs electron quantum well, a 30 Å GaSb hole quantum well, and asecond 16 Å InAs electron QW, with the absorber having a net thicknessof less than 10 nm and an energy gap of 300 meV (λ_(co)=4.2 μm) at 300K. For a resonance wavelength of 3.4 μm, an absorption per pass of 0.34%was calculated, which doubles that of the single-interface structureshown in FIG. 3 due to enhancement of the wavefunction overlap. WithR₂≈100%, simulations by the inventors yielded that a top mirrorreflectivity of R₁=95% will provide QE≈80%, with and δλ≈11 nm.

By positioning the central Ga(In)Sb hole QW between two InAs electronQWs, the “W” configuration provides greater overlap of the electron andhole wavefunctions than the type-II single-interface structure of FIG.3, which in turn increases the absorbance per pass. If additional QWsare added, high QE can be obtained with a lower top mirror reflectivity.The FWHM of the resonance would also broaden correspondingly.

As with the previous structure illustrated in FIG. 3, in accordance withthe present invention, if the net doping in the absorber is p-type andexceeds the intrinsic carrier population the conduction band on then-type side of the active absorber should approximately align with thelowest electron subband in the type-II “W” QW, while the valence bandmaximum on the p-type side should be slightly higher than the topmosthole subband in the active QW(s). This is the configuration shown inFIG. 4. In accordance with the present invention, the optimal alignmentscan be altered as discussed above in the alternative cases where the netdoping of the active region is n-type and larger than the intrinsiccarrier population, or when the intrinsic carrier density exceeds theextrinsic doping level. The use of wide-gap materials in the n- andp-regions again minimizes thermal generation everywhere except withinthe absorber.

Numerous other variations are possible.

For example, the cut-off wavelength for the active “W” QW can be easilytuned by adjusting the thicknesses of the InAs QWs. In addition, the twoInAs QWs need not have the same thicknesses, or the single or multipletype-II “W” QWs may be formed from InAs—InAsSb or InAs—InAsSb—InAs(“Ga-free”) layering. Alternatively, if multiple QWs are employed, itmay be advantageous to form a superlattice such as InAs—Ga(In)Sb orInAs—InAsSb, rather than multiple “W” QWs separated by AlSb barriers. Inother embodiments, the one or more QWs in the absorber may beconstructed using a type-I or type-II configuration that does not form a“W” structure. Numerous variations on the active material constituentsmay also be employed, such as InAsSb or InGaAs electron QWs, Ga(Al)Sb orGaAsSb hole QWs, and AlGaSb or AlAsSb barriers. As discussed above,additional barriers or transition superlattices may also be added on oneor both sides of the active absorber QWs.

The band diagram in FIG. 5 illustrates aspects of another exemplaryembodiment of an RCID device in accordance with the present inventionwhich includes an ultra-thin LWIR absorber consisting of a singletype-II InAs_(0.65)Sb_(0.35) (48 Å)-InAs_(0.35)Sb_(0.65) (35 Å) QW. Inthe embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5, the net absorber thickness d isless than 11 nm, and its energy gap is 130 meV (λ_(co)=9.3 μm) at 150 K,though, as noted above, one skilled in the art will understand thatother materials and material layer thicknesses may be employed asappropriate. Again, the band bending associated with charge transferbetween the different layers is not shown in FIG. 5.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5, the absorber is bounded on oneside by a strain-balanced n-type InAs (50 Å)-Al_(0.9)In_(0.1)Sb (25 Å)superlattice whose alignment provides efficient extraction of thephoto-generated electrons. In order to approximately align thevalence-band edge of the absorber QW with the valence-band edge of thep-region, we may employ p-Al_(0.45)Ga_(0.55)As_(0.04)Sb_(0.96,) which islattice-matched to the GaSb substrate, or Al_(0.45)Ga_(0.55)Sb as in thefigure, which is not lattice matched but with small enough strain that athin layer is unlikely to introduce dislocations.

As discussed above for other exemplary embodiments, in accordance withthe present invention, if the net doping in the absorber is p-type andlarger than the intrinsic carrier density, the conduction band minimumon the n-type side of the absorber should approximately align with theground state electron subband in the type-II Ga-free QW, while thevalence-band maximum on the p-type side should be slightly higher thanthe topmost hole subband in the active QW(s). This is the configurationshown in FIG. 5. However, the optimal alignments can be altered asdiscussed above in the alternative cases where the net doping of theactive region is n-type and larger than the intrinsic carrierpopulation, or when the intrinsic carrier density exceeds the extrinsicdoping level.

Also in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5, the absorber is bounded onthe other side by a p-GaSb layer separated from the absorber by aGa_(0.55)Al_(0.45)Sb barrier layer having a nominal thickness of 10 nm.The role of the barrier layer is to prevent excessive thermal generationat what would otherwise be a very narrow bandgap or semimetallicinterface between the InAsSb/InAsSb QW absorber and the GaSb p-region;however, in some other embodiments, the barrier layer can be omittedsuch that the p-GaSb layer is directly adjacent the QW absorber. Whilesome absorption may occur at the interface between the InAsSb/InAsSb QWabsorber and the GaAlSb layer of the structure in FIG. 5 (or the p-GaSbin an embodiment without the barrier), that will simply contributeadditional absorption at roughly the same band edge as the QW.

At an operating temperature of 150 K, the QW energy gap is 130 meV(λ_(co)=9.3 μm). For a resonance wavelength of 9.2 μm, simulations bythe inventors projected an absorption per pass of A=0.18%. With R₂≈100%,projections yielded that a top mirror reflectivity of R₁=95% willprovide QE≈80% with δλ≈23 nm. While the assumed operating temperature of150 K is much higher than for a conventional broadband LWIR detectorwith background-limited detectivity D*, the invention's strongsuppression of dark currents will help make it feasible.

It should be noted that the exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5relies on the combination of two InAs_(1-x)Sb_(x) alloy compositionsthat cannot be strain-balanced or lattice-matched to any binarysubstrate that is commonly used in existing state-of-the-art IRdetectors to provide high-quality growth. Therefore, thick absorberregions employing this design would generate dislocations that seriouslycompromise the device performance.

In addition, although the InAs_(1-x)Sb_(x) alloy system offers anattractive range of bandgaps and is known to display a longminority-carrier lifetime when grown with high material quality, its usein conventional broadband IR detectors is severely limited by strainconsiderations. Since only one particular alloy composition, x≈0.08, hasa lattice constant matching that of a GaSb substrate (and only thebinary endpoints match the lattice constants of InAs and InSbsubstrates), access to other alloy compositions, and, therefore, toother cut-off wavelengths, requires the employment of either metamorphicgrowth on a lattice-mismatched substrate or some form of straincompensation to GaSb or another binary substrate. While metamorphicgrowth methods have made progress in recent years, see D. Wang et al.,“Metamorphic InAsSb-based barrier photodetectors for the long waveinfrared region,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 051120 (2013), the materialquality still falls far short of that attainable usingstrain-compensated or lattice-matched growth.

Strain compensation has been used to match superlattices such asInAs/InAs_(1-x)Sb_(x) to the GaSb substrate lattice constant. See J. Luet al., “Evaluation of antimony segregation in InAs/InAs_(1-x)Sb_(x)type-II superlattices grown by molecular beam epitaxy,” J. Appl. Phys.119, 095702 (2016). However, the range of InAsSb alloy compositions andlayer thicknesses that may be employed with acceptable strain issubstantially limited. The extraction of holes from a thick n-typeInAs—InAsSb superlattices with a short minority-carrier diffusion lengthis also an issue that can limit the QE, especially at longer cutoffwavelengths. A significant advantage of the invention is that itsultra-thin absorber (≤100 nm) provides very efficient minority-carrierextraction even when the minority-carrier diffusion length is relativelyshort.

Many other InAsSb—InAsSb or InAs—InAsSb QW layer combinations may beemployed as variations on the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5. Theseare capable of spanning any desired MWIR to LWIR cut-off wavelength,although the n-type and p-type regions on opposite sides of the absorbermust be modified to provide appropriate alignment of the conduction andvalence band energies.

A single-layer InAs_(1-x)Sb_(x) QW or slightly thicker bulk-like InAsSballoy of any composition may also be employed, as long as the absorberthickness does not exceed the critical thickness for growth withoutdislocations. For example, a cut-off wavelength of 5.0 μm can beobtained using a structure somewhat similar to that in FIG. 5, with anabsorber consisting of a 100-Å-thick InAs_(0.35)Sb_(0.65) QW (ratherthan the InAsSb/InAsSb QW shown in FIG. 5), bounded on the left by anInAs (34 Å)-AlSb (35 Å) n-type region and on the right by the sameGa_(0.7)Al_(0.3)Sb barrier (or a GaAlAsSb barrier) and the same GaSbp-layer as in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5. As discussed above, toensure the optimal suppression of Auger recombination as a result ofdepleting majority and intrinsic carriers from the active region, theband alignments on the n- and p-sides of the active region may requireadjustments based on whether the net doping concentration in the activeregion is n-type or p-type, whether it is larger or smaller than theintrinsic carrier concentration, and whether γ₃ ^(ppn) or γ₃ ^(nnp) islarger.

For all of the embodiments falling under the scope of the invention, ifthe band alignments are insufficient to sweep most of the extrinsic andintrinsic carriers out of the active region at zero bias, theapplication of a reverse bias may serve to more fully deplete the activeregion of the device.

It was mentioned above that placing the absorber entirely within thedepletion region may be advantageous at higher operating temperatures,since sweep-out of the intrinsic and extrinsic carriers will reduce thedark current associated with Auger recombination due to the intrinsiccarrier populations. On the other hand, at lower temperatures and longerwavelengths, full depletion may be undesirable if defect-assisted ratherthan Auger processes dominate the dark current, as they do instate-of-the-art III-V MWIR and LWIR detectors. A detector in accordancewith the present invention can be designed so as to place the absorbereither entirely within the depletion region when Auger processesdominate, or in a quasi-neutral region with much lower electric fieldwhen defect processes dominate; which of these options is preferablewill depend on the absorber material choice, the spectral band, and thetemperature of operation.

To further enhance the device functionality, other embodiments of anRCID device in accordance with the present invention can include anabsorber region formed by one or more asymmetric QWs, e.g., InAs/GaInSb.When a variable electric field (controlled by the bias voltage) isapplied to this type of asymmetric structure, the opposite shifts of theelectron and hole wavefunctions in their respective QWs induce a red orblue shift of the band edge. This provides a mechanism for dynamicallytuning between strong resonance-enhanced absorption for one operatingbias, vs. minimal absorption of the resonance wavelength at another biasfor which the cut-off wavelength is shifted beyond the cavity resonance.A red shift of the absorption edge by the application of an electricfield can also be employed in type-I quantum wells.

Other embodiments of an RCID in accordance with the present inventionemploy variations on nBn or pBp configurations rather than a p-njunction. See S. Maimon et al., “nBn detector, an infrared detector withreduced dark current and higher operating temperature,” Appl. Phys.Lett. 89, 151109 (2006); A. Soibel et al., “Room temperature performanceof mid-wavelength infrared InAsSb nBn detectors,” IR Phys. Technol. 70,121 (2015); and E. A. Plis et al., “Bias Switchable Dual-Band InAs/GaSbSuperlattice Detector With pBp Architecture,” IEEE Phot. J. 3, 234(2011).

In conventional nBn or pBp detectors, the absorber is thick and placedon one side of the electron (for nBn) or hole (for pBp) barrier. In nBnor pBp embodiments of an RCID in accordance with the present invention,the absorber will be much thinner and is placed within the resonantcavity formed by the top and bottom dielectric and/or grownsemiconductor mirrors, the first n-type (or p-type) region, the electronor hole barrier region, and the second n-type (or p-type) region, withthe absorber being surrounded on both sides by wider-gap layers toreduce the unwanted thermal generation.

In the case of the nBn or pBp embodiments of an RCID in accordance withthe present invention, the band edge for minority carriers in thebarrier does not need to be precisely aligned with that of the absorber.The band discontinuity that has to be present in either the conductionor valence band will manifest as an increased operating bias, which canbe relatively small for the required energy-gap difference of 5-10 kBT.

The thin absorber can also be placed near an antinode of the resonantcavity, and as with all of the structures discussed above, thedetectivity of an RCID in accordance with the nBn or pBp embodiments ofthe present invention will benefit from the substantial suppression ofthe dark current originating in the thin absorber region.

For a conventional device with a thick absorber, the nBn geometrytypically induces a smaller internal electric field within or at theboundaries of the absorber, since if properly designed, there is nodepletion region associated with the presence of a p-n junction. Theavoidance of the p-n junction eliminates or reduces the dark currentassociated with Shockley-Read defect-related processes, which aresuppressed by the presence of carriers. However, it does not allow Augerprocesses to be suppressed via full depletion of the majority andminority carriers, as discussed above. Instead, the dominant diffusiondark current is suppressed by reducing the total thickness of theabsorber.

The plot in FIG. 6 illustrates band profiles for an exemplary embodimentof an nBn active core for a long-wave infrared (LWIR) RCID in accordancewith the present invention. The spatial dimensions in the figure are notdrawn to scale. In this structure, the conduction and valence band edges601 and 602, respectively, in the heavily-doped (typically≈10¹⁷ cm⁻³)contact regions 603 a and 603 b, and the less-heavily doped (typicallyunintentionally doped at ≈10¹⁵-10¹⁶ cm⁻³) absorber region 604 are shownin the FIGURE as solid lines, while the extremal energies of thequantum-confined subbands are indicated with dashed lines. The energygaps in the contact regions are larger than in the absorber to suppressthermal generation.

The exemplary embodiment of an nBn active core for an RCID detectorshown in FIG. 6, which is configured for detection at λ=12-13 μm at anoperating temperature of T≈60 K, uses an absorber with a band gap of 88meV. The absorber superlattice (SL) 603 is designed to have some overallcompressive strain, in order to increase the absorption coefficient by60-65%. This would not be possible for a conventional absorber with atotal thickness of several μm. In the exemplary embodiment describedherein, the layer structure of the SL absorber 604 is 57 Å InAs/25 ÅInAs_(0.45)Sb_(0.55), with the absorber being background-doped with adensity that typically ranges from 10¹⁵ to 10¹⁶ cm⁻³, depending on theparticular molecular beam epitaxial (MBE) system employed for thegrowth.

The absorbed fraction of incident light per period per pass ranges from0.1% at λ=8 μm to 0.05% at 13 μm. Therefore, with an anti-reflectioncoating, a single pass through the 20-period, 164-nm-thick structurewould result in 1-2% absorption.

The nBn structure also includes a 200-nm-thickAl_(0.4)Ga_(0.6)As_(0.03)Sb_(0.97) barrier region 605 having valence andconduction bands 606 and 607, respectively, and a wider-gap (E_(g)≈160meV) n region 603 a composed of a Ga-free 77 Å InAs/15 ÅInAs_(0.45)Sb_(0.55) SL with an intentional doping level 10¹⁷ cm⁻³.Since it is difficult to contact the thin absorber directly, aheavily-doped contact layer 603 b is also employed on the other side ofabsorber 604. The heavily n-doped contacts are designed to beessentially transparent to the light in the 8-13 μm spectral region. TheAlGaAsSb barrier 605 may be either undoped or doped lightly p-type toreduce the band bending that would be induced by an n-type background.The nBn configuration should also completely suppress the surfaceleakage mechanisms characteristic of p-type InAs-containing narrow-gaplayers, without requiring passivation or other measures.

One approach for constructing an RCID in accordance with aspects of thepresent invention having a bottom mirror with R₂≈1 employs aGaSb/AlAs_(0.08)Sb_(0.92) quarter-wavelength stack that is grown bymolecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on a GaSb substrate below the n-typeregion, with thin absorber QW(s) and a p-type region grown on top of then-type region. To reduce the parasitic voltage drop at theheterointerfaces, the conduction-band discontinuity can be smoothed witha 10 GaSb/10 Al(As)Sb superlattice with approximately ten repeats and/ora higher doping level in the immediate vicinity of the heterointerfacesbetween each GaSb layer and the adjacent AlAs_(0.08)Sb_(0.92) layers.

This approach was used by Dier et al., see “Reduction ofhetero-interface resistivity in n-type AlAsSb/GaSb distributed Braggreflectors,” Semicond. Sci. Technol. 23, 025018 (2008), and has beenimplemented at the Naval Research Laboratory to minimize the electricalresistance of high-reflectivity bottom mirrors for interband cascadevertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) structures. In the caseof an exemplary bottom mirror consisting of a 22.5-period GaSb/AlAsSbstack, a maximum reflectivity of 99.4% at λ=3.4 μm was calculated.

An RCID device may be formed by placing a thin absorber region inaccordance with the invention within a resonant cavity such as theexemplary cavity configuration illustrated in FIG. 1, though it will beobvious to one skilled in the art that the features of the presentinvention may also be implemented in numerous other cavityconfigurations that accomplish resonant cavity detector operation. Forexample, the top (or bottom) mirror may be a dielectric Bragg mirror, agrown semiconductor Bragg mirror, a metal mirror, a hybrid thatincorporates a combination of dielectric and/or semiconductor and/ormetal layers, or some other mirror configuration known to the art.

The inventive designs and features described above for the absorber andsurrounding regions may also be implemented in architectures wherein thephotoexcitation propagates within the plane of the epitaxial structurerather than being vertically incident, i.e., parallel to the growth axisof the epitaxial structure, as in the case illustrated in FIG. 1. Forexample, the photoexcitation may be incident via a waveguide thatoriginates elsewhere on a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) that maycontain one or more optical sources and one or more resonant cavitydetectors, as well as other optical and/or electronic components. ThePIC substrate may be silicon, in which case the incident waveguide maybe silicon-based while the waveguide in the absorber region may be ahybrid waveguide that shares the optical mode between a silicon-basedunderlayer and the layers comprising III-V materials that contain theactive absorber. Another example is that the substrate may be a III-Vsemiconductor that contains one or more sources as well as one or moreresonant cavity detectors. In some embodiments, the resonant cavity forthe resonant cavity detectors may be formed using etching or some otherknown material processing technique to form in-plane Bragg mirrors. ForSi-based PICS, such mirrors may be formed using standard CMOSprocessing.

The plots in FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate the resonant enhancement of anexemplary RCID having a thin absorber region in accordance with theinvention. The plot in FIG. 7 depicts the calculated reflection spectrumof radiation having a normal incidence on a device. While thereflectivity approaches unity over most of the 3-4.5-μm spectral band,it decreases nearly to zero at the resonance wavelength near 3.4 μm.

FIG. 8 illustrates the corresponding simulated quantum efficiency (QE)spectrum (assuming all of the photogenerated carriers are collected,i.e., η_(c)=1) for two exemplary RCIDs having semiconductor and hybridbottom mirrors.

The solid curve in FIG. 8 shows the QE spectrum for an exemplary RCIDhaving a 22.5-period GaSb/AlAsSb semiconductor bottom mirror, while thedashed curve shows the QE spectrum for an RCID having a hybrid bottommirror comprising 3.5 periods of GaSb/AlAsSb on top of a layer of gold(dashed curve). The resonance of the RCID having a hybrid mirror is notas sharp as for one having the all-semiconductor mirror, because thereflectivity R₂ of the metal/semiconductor hybrid mirror is not as high.

At longer wavelengths, it becomes impractical to grow a highlyreflective bottom mirror by the preferred epitaxial growth technique ofMBE, because the total mirror thickness would significantly exceed 10μm.

However, a high-reflectivity bottom mirror can still be realized bytaking advantage of the refractive index decrease associated with theplasma effect in a heavily-doped semiconductor. In such a case, themagnitude of the plasma shift scales as λ²N, where N is the dopantconcentration. An attractive choice for the heavily-doped material isn⁺-InAs_(0.91)Sb_(0.09), lattice matched to the GaSb substrate, whichcan be doped as high as 10¹⁹ cm⁻³. For example, simulations project thatat λ=8.0 μm, a hybrid bottom mirror comprised of a 6-period GaSb/AlAsSbstack grown on top of a 3-period GaSb/n⁺-InAs_(0.91)Sb_(0.09) stack willprovide a reflectivity of 97.5%, even though the total epitaxialthickness is less than 10 μm.

In other embodiments, the bottom mirror can be formed by growing a thinsemiconductor stack, removing the GaSb substrate, and then depositing ametal mirror (e.g., a 200-nm-thick layer of Au) on the bottom of thesemiconductor stack (where the substrate had been).

A further advantage of an RCID in accordance with the present inventionis that it provides multiple novel means for tuning the resonancewavelength following completion of the epitaxial growth of thestructure. For example, the resonant cavity may intentionally be growntoo short, after which its length is adjusted by adding a thin spacerfilm with variable thickness of Ge, Si, or some other low-loss material.Alternatively, the cavity may intentionally be grown too long, afterwhich its length is adjusted by etching away some of the topmostepitaxial material. In both cases, the top dielectric mirror issubsequently deposited, as described above, to form a complete cavitywhose resonance wavelength falls within the bandwidth of both top andbottom mirrors.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary structure in which the cavity resonanceis tuned by etching away some of the epitaxial material. Such astructure can include a bottom contact metallization layer 902 on abottom surface of an n-GaSb substrate 901, a bottom n-GaSb/AlAsSb mirror903, an n-InAs/AlSb superlattice n-region 904 and GaSb p-regions 905a/905 b/905 c, and dielectric top mirrors 908 a/908 b/908 c, with the n-and p-regions separated by an InAs/GaInSb/InAs single-“W”-structured QWultra-thin absorber 906 between the n- and p-regions. As in theresonant-cavity structure illustrated in FIG. 1, the detector mesas(which can be circular or square) is etched to below the absorber region906, with an annular top metal contact 909 deposited around theperimeter of each circular or square mesa, and the mesa sidewalls andexposed region outside the mesa and below the junction (formed by themesa etch) are coated with a dielectric 907 such as SiN beforemetallization of the top contact to prevent shorting of the junction. Inoperation, the RCID is illuminated by radiation 910 normally incident ontop mirror 908 a/908 b/908 c.

As described above, the bottom and top mirrors form resonant cavitieswhich now provide different resonant wavelengths on the same chipbecause the cavity lengths are different. As noted above, in thisembodiment, the effective length of each resonant cavity—and thus theresonance wavelength of each detector—can be tuned by etching away someof the epitaxial material to form resonant cavities 900 a/900 b/900 chaving respective p-type region thicknesses 905 a/905 b/905 c. Themultiple cavity thicknesses provide—an RCID having multiple resonantwavelengths λ₁/λ₂/λ₃ available on the same chip.

An RCID fabricated in accordance with aspects of this embodiment of thepresent invention may use this post-growth adjustment of the cavitylength to fine-tune the cavity resonance to assure the sensitivedetection of a precise target wavelength λ_(target). Alternatively, thedetection window can be tuned over multiple resonance wavelengths(tuning over >10 different wavelengths should be feasible). In someembodiments, the spacer thickness or etch depth for one or more of themesas on a chip may be zero. Devices having multiple cavity lengths withmultiple resonance wavelengths can be used to provide a reference signalat a wavelength not strongly absorbed by a substance being sensed, toprovide broader spectral coverage for detecting multiple absorptionlines, to compensate for thermal variations of λ_(res), or to probe abroadband spectrum at multiple selected wavelengths to provide positiveidentification of an absorbing species.

FIG. 10 schematically illustrates another exemplary embodiment of theinvention, in which the top mirror is replaced by a metallic ordielectric mirror that is external to the semiconductor chip.

As with the other embodiment illustrated in FIG. 9, the exemplary RCIDillustrated in FIG. 10 includes a bottom contact metallization layer1002 on a bottom surface of an n-GaSb substrate 1001, a bottomn-GaSb/AlAsSb mirror 1003, an n-InAs/AlSb superlattice n-type region1004 and GaSb p-type regions 1005, with the n- and p-type regionsseparated by a single-“W”-QW InAs/GaInSb/InAs ultra-thin absorber 1006between the n- and p-type regions. As in the other embodiments, thedetector mesa comprising the n- and p-type areas is etched to below theabsorber region 1006, with an annular top metal contact 1009 depositedaround the perimeter of the circular or square mesa, and the mesasidewalls and exposed region outside the mesa and below the junction(formed by the mesa etch) are coated with a dielectric 1007 such as SiNbefore metallization of the top contact to prevent shorting of thejunction.

However, instead of having a dielectric mirror such as dielectric mirror608 that forms part of the resonant cavity, an RCID in accordance withthis embodiment has a metallic or dielectric mirror 1018 a/1018 b/1018 cthat is external to the structure of the chip. The three mirrorsdepicted in the figure represent the same mirror tuned to threedifferent positions that produce three different resonant wavelengths. Asignificant advantage of this approach is that the resonant wavelengthcan in principle be tuned continuously, via adjustment of the positionof the top mirror. In operation, the RCID is illuminated by radiation1010 normally incident on top of the external mirror.

Although the cavity becomes longer in this case, it can be madespectrally selective using an angle-adjustable grating or similar tuningelement. Alternatively, a micro-positioning mechanism known to the art,such as a piezo-tunable MEMS mirror, can be used to dynamically tune thecavity length and thereby provide tuning of the spectrally selectivefeedback. See Felder 2007, supra. In both cases, the maximum spectraltuning range is again limited by the bandwidths of the semiconductorbottom mirror and the external top mirror.

In another example, the LWIR nBn design described above and illustratedin FIG. 6 may be incorporated into an exemplary RCID by employing abroadband metallic mirror having a reflectivity R>95% over the 8-13 μmrange on the bottom of the absorber, following removal of the GaSbsubstrate. The top mirror in this exemplary embodiment is a two-layerhigh-reflection Ge/YF₃ coating (R=83-87% and very low absorption in the8-13 μm range) having both layer thicknesses equal to λ_(c)/4n, whereλ_(c)=9.9 μm is the center wavelength and n is the index in the layer inquestion.

The entire cavity has a net thickness of λ_(c)/n, with the absorberpositioned at the antinode of the optical electric field at the centerwavelength. As the wavelength shifts towards the edges of the spectralrange, the antinode enhancement is reduced from 1.99 (close to themaximum possible value of 2) to ≈1.5. In order to make sure that thecavity length is correct regardless of the precise detector structure,high-index GaSb or Ge spacers are used between the active detectorstructure and the mirrors, if necessary.

The device structure is designed so that detection can be performed atwavelengths in the 8-13 μm range. This makes it possible to employ thepresent structure to detect multiple wavelengths by varying the cavitylengths with Ge spacers of the proper thickness or using externalspectrally selective feedback. The cavity's resonance wavelength,λ_(res), is determined by its effective length and the refractiveindices of its constituent layers. The QE is enhanced significantly onlyif λ_(res) falls within the high-reflectivity bandwidths of both top andbottom mirrors. We estimate that for a given cavity length, the RCIDdesign specified above will produce a narrow resonance with high QEwithin ≈10 nm. More precisely, as the cavity length is changed thelinewidth varies in the 10-15 nm range. The QE is projected to vary from90% at λ_(res)=8 μm to 50% at 13 μm. A longer maximum wavelength of 13.5μm can alternatively be accommodated using a similar cavity and mirrordesign, although at the expense of a lower operating temperature.

The top mirror in some embodiments of such an nBn detector can consistof a quarter-wave stack of largely transparent dielectrics having alarge index contrast. Instead of Ge, other high-index materials withoutfree carriers and phonon-related transitions in the LWIR can be used.YF₃ can be replaced by other rare-earth fluorides or different low-indexmaterials transparent in this wavelength range. The broadband metalmirror can be replaced by a combination of a Bragg semiconductor mirrorand a metal mirror with reduced spectral coverage. The most versatileembodiment employs an external top dielectric mirror whose position canbe piezo-electrically tuned to vary the resonance wavelength.

In order to inject electrical current into the III-V semiconductorresiding below the top mirror, the preferred embodiment uses a lateralcontact, though other configurations may be used as appropriate. Thematerial to which the contact is made may be a heavily doped n⁺-InAs(Sb)layer grown on top of the p-type region. In preferred embodiments, theheavily doped contact layer is positioned at a node of the cavityelectric field, in order to minimize the optical loss.

The RCID of the invention can be monolithically combined with alight-emitting device that is grown on the same substrate. In somecases, the light emission may come from a vertical-cavity laser, see A.Bachmann et al., “Single-mode electrically pumped GaSb-based VCSELsemitting continuous-wave at 2.4 and 2.6 μm,” New Journal of Physics 11,125014 (2009); and W. W. Bewley, C. L. Canedy, C. S. Kim, C. D. Merritt,M. V. Warren, I. Vurgaftman, J. R. Meyer, and M. Kim, “Room-temperatureMid-Infrared Interband Cascade Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser,”Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 151108 (2016), that employs the RCID semiconductorbottom mirror as its top mirror. In other cases, illumination can befrom a broadband illumination source such as a light-emitting device,for example, based on an interband-cascade active region. See J. Abell,C. S. Kim, W. W. Bewley, C. D. Merritt, C. L. Canedy, I. Vurgaftman, J.R. Meyer, and M. Kim, “Mid-infrared interband cascade light emittingdevices with milliwatt output powers at room temperature,” Appl. Phys.Lett. 104, 261103 (2014). In the latter case, the resonant-cavitydetector would provide spectral selectivity, for example, for chemicalspecies identification, despite the use of a broadband light source. Insome embodiments, the monolithic infrared light source andresonant-cavity detector can be used in conjunction with a fixed orposition-tunable external top mirror to provide extremely sensitivedetection of selected trace gas species present in the gap between thetop of the semiconductor and the external top mirror.

The embodiments described above have employed MBE to grow thesemiconductor components of the photodetector. IR detector structuresmay also be grown by other means, although to date the growth qualityhas not matched that achievable using MBE. Most of the embodimentsdiscussed above are also readily adaptable, using design techniques wellknown to the art, to growth on an InAs substrate. The bottom mirror isthen replaced by a lattice-matched combination such as GaAsSb/AlAsSb orInAs/AlAsSb for LWIR detectors, and the p-region, absorber, andn-regions are also modified accordingly to maintain strain-balancing tothe lattice constant to InAs. Other embodiments employ another substrateand bottom mirror material, such as GaAs combined with a GaAs/AlGaAsmirror. The GaSb-based IR p-n junction, nBn, and absorber regions arethen grown using metamorphic techniques known to the art.

In some embodiments, the optical input to the RCID can be temporallymodulated, e.g., by an external electro-optical modulator or mechanicalchopper. When combined with lock-in analysis of the detected signal,this will provide further discrimination against non-optical noisesources such as diffusion, generation-recombination, and surface leakagedark currents.

In various embodiments, the invention may be used to constructhigh-sensitivity narrow-bandwidth single element detectors, arrays ofdetectors with a selected range of resonance wavelengths, or imagingarrays for narrow-band imaging. Other embodiments obtain hyperspectralimaging by employing a position-tunable external mirror in conjunctionwith the RCIC array.

In other embodiments, the RCID of the invention is used to enhance thespeed of a single-element detector, small array with multiple resonancewavelengths, or imaging array, by taking advantage of the much shortertime required to extract minority carriers from the ultra-thin absorber,as compared to the longer time required for diffusion across the muchthicker absorber of a convention IR detector.

In other embodiments of a resonant-cavity infrared photodetector withfully-depleted absorber in accordance with the present invention, thepropagation of the optical signal to be detected occurs in the plane ofthe epitaxial structure rather than along its growth axis.

The in-plane interband absorption coefficient is α=Γα₀+α_(i), where α₀is the material interband absorption coefficient, which was employedabove in analyzing the case of vertical light propagation, α_(i) is anyparasitic absorption or scattering in the waveguide that does notproduce photoexcited carriers in the absorber, and Γ is the opticalconfinement factor, which represents the vertical overlap of the opticalmode with the absorber layer (more specifically, the fraction of theintegrated square of the optical electric field that lies within theabsorber material). As discussed above, a very thin absorber is suitablefor full depletion of the majority and minority carriers withoutrequiring a large bias voltage to induce carrier sweep-out. For thelaterally propagating light, the net absorbance A per pass is thenA=αL_(p), where L_(p) is the lateral path length of the absorber region.

The quantum efficiency (QE) for detection within the lateral resonantcavity is given by the relation in Equation (3), supra, multiplied by anadditional factor of Γα₀/α to account for any losses that result fromparasitic loss within the waveguide. The resulting detectivity is givenby the relation in Equation (1), supra, with the diffusion-limited darkcurrent given by the relation in Equation (2), supra.

It will usually be advantageous for the in-plane optical signal topropagate within a waveguide that is narrow enough to providepropagation in a single lateral mode. In some embodiments, the waveguidemay be formed entirely within the III-V semiconductor epitaxial layerthat provides the active absorber, while in other embodiments theoptical signal may propagate in a hybrid waveguide that is formed bybonding the III-V material to silicon or some other low-loss waveguidematerial formed on a suitable substrate. For example, see S.-H. Hsu,“Reflectively Coupled Waveguide Photodetector for High Speed OpticalInterconnection,” Sensors 10, 10863 (2010); M. Muneeb et al.,“III-V-on-silicon integrated micro—spectrometer for the 3 μm wavelengthrange,” Opt. Expr. 24, 9465 (2016); R. Wang et al., “III-V-on-SiliconPhotonic Integrated Circuits for Spectroscopic Sensing in the 2-4 μmWavelength Range,” Sensors 17, 1788 (2017).

When the optical signal propagates in the plane in such a device, the QEof the photodetector can generally be optimized by configuring thedetector such that it has a lateral propagation length long enough toabsorb most of the photons.

Because the lateral extent of the active absorber region can be verylong, high QE can be obtained even when the absorber region is verythin. In particular, the detector can have a high QE when the absorberis thin enough to realize full carrier depletion at a low bias voltage,when the absorber constituents are so highly strained ornon-lattice-matched that relaxation would occur if the absorber regionwere thicker, or when the other novel absorber designs discussed aboveare employed. The absorber can also be formed from a material withrelatively low minority-carrier mobility, since the required diffusionlength to collect the minority carriers scales with the absorberthickness. These advantages may be realized even when the in-planewaveguide or another propagation region does not form a resonant cavity,which can be obtained, for example, by bounding it withhigh-reflectivity mirrors.

As is well known to the art, in-plane light propagation can be achievedusing mirrors that provide high reflectivity within the waveguide, e.g.,by patterning distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR) gratings into thelateral waveguide in which the light propagates. For example, see M.Ariga et al., “Low Threshold GaInAsP Lasers with Semiconductor/AirDistributed Bragg Reflector Fabricated by Inductively Coupled PlasmsEtching,” Jpn. Appl. Phys. 39, 3406 (2000). It is also possible to tunethe resonance wavelength of the DBR mirrors, using several methods knownto the art. For example, see M. Okuda et al., “Tunability of DistributedBragg-Reflector Laser by Modulating Refractive Index in CorrugatedWaveguide, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 16, 1501 (1977); and U.S. Pat. No.9,209,601 to S. Davies et al., “Monolithically Integrated TunableSemiconductor Laser.” Other methods known to the art may also be used toform mirrors that reflect light propagating in the plane.

However, for in-plane propagation, the dark current increases linearlywith the lateral length of the propagation region. Therefore, as in thecase of light propagation along the vertical direction, i.e., outsidethe plane of the detector, the dark current for detection within anarrow spectral band can be reduced by forming a resonant cavity toprovide multiple passes of the optical signal, e.g, by providingreflectors on opposite ends of the detector, which substantiallyshortens the detector length required to realize high QE and a highdetectivity D*. In addition, as in the case of vertical lightpropagation discussed above, such a resonant cavity substantiallynarrows the spectral bandwidth of the detected signal. All of the designoptions discussed above for the case of a very thin absorberincorporated into a resonant cavity along the vertical axis may also beapplied to the design of detectors with very thin absorbers that areincorporated into an in-plane resonant cavity so that the in-plane RCIDscan also provide high QE when the absorber is very thin.

In some embodiments of this aspect of the present invention, the opticalsignal can propagate within a hybrid waveguide that includes an RCIDphotodiode as part of a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) configured todetect an optical signal propagating along the plane of the epitaxialstructure. Such a PIC in accordance with the present invention may beformed on a silicon, germanium, chalcogenide, III-V, or other suitablewaveguide platform known to the art. For example, see G.-H. Duan et al.,“Hybrid III-V on Silicon Lasers for Photonic Integrated Circuits onSilicon,” IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quant. Electron 20, 6100123 (2014); A.Spott et al., “Heterogeneous Integration for Mid-Infrared SiliconPhotonics,” IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quant. Electron. 23, 8200818 (2017); P.Ma et al., “Low-loss chalcogenide waveguides for chemical sensing in themid-infrared,” Opt. Expr. 21, 29927 (2013); B. Schwarz et al.,“Monolithically integrated mid-infrared lab-on-a-chip using plasmonicsand quantum cascade structures,” Nat. Commun. 5, 4085 (2014); S.-H. Hsu,“Reflectively Coupled Waveguide Photodetector for High Speed OpticalInterconnection,” Sensors 10, 10863 (2010). Suitable methods forfabricating such a structure are discussed, for example, in A. W. Fanget al., “Integrated AlGaInAs-silicon evanescent racetrack laser andphotodetector,” Opt. Expr. 15, 2315 (2007).

The block schematics in FIGS. 11A and 11B illustrate exemplaryembodiments of such a hybrid waveguide in accordance with these aspectsof the present invention. It will be noted that the configurationsillustrated in FIGS. 11A and 11B are exemplary only, and numerousalternative III-V or hybrid waveguide configurations, as well as othermaterials and layering configurations in the III-V active detectorstructure, may also be employed within the spirit of the invention.

In the embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 11A and 11B, the hybridwaveguide is formed when a III-V chip containing the active componentsof an RCID photodiode is bonded to a pre-processed silicon portion ofthe waveguide.

This silicon portion of a hybrid waveguide in accordance with thepresent invention comprises a silicon wafer 1101, a first, lower SiNcladding layer 1102, and a silicon portion of the core 1103. In someembodiments, it may be advantageous to adjust the coupling of theoptical mode propagating in the waveguide to the active absorber. Forthis reason, as illustrated in FIG. 11, an optional second claddinglayer 1104 can be interposed between the top of the silicon portion ofthe waveguide and the bottom of the III-V portion of the waveguide,where the second, interposed cladding layer can be composed of SiN orsome other material that has a lower refractive index than silicon andlow optical loss in the wavelength region of interest. The siliconportion of the hybrid waveguide 1103 and optional SiN interposedcladding layer 1004 may be patterned to include one or more air ordielectric regions (such as air pockets) 1109 on each lateral side ofthe hybrid waveguide which can help to laterally confine the opticalmode propagating in the hybrid waveguide and ensure that propagation isin a single lateral mode.

The RCID photodetector in a hybrid waveguide in accordance with thepresent invention is in the form of a III-V heterostructure comprisingelements 1105, 1110, 1111, 1112, and 1113 described in more detailbelow. Thus, the RCID photodetector includes an n⁺-InAs/AlSbsuperlattice or n⁺-InAsSb bottom contacting layer 1105 disposed on topof the silicon portion of the core 1103 (or on top of the SiN interposedcladding layer 1104 if present), an n⁻-InAs/AlSb superlattice n-region1110 disposed on top of one or more first areas of an n⁺ superlatticelayer 1105, a thin active absorber region 1111 (which may employ one ofthe designs discussed above or some other design) disposed on top ofn-region 1110, a p⁻-GaSb p-region 1112 disposed on top of activeabsorber region 1111, and a p⁺-GaSb top contact layer 1113 disposed ontop of p-region 1112. A bottom metal contact pad 1108 is disposed on topof one or more second areas of n⁺ superlattice layer 1105. The p-typeGaSb used in this exemplary embodiment has favorable properties for thep-region and p+ contact layers of an RCID whose absorber contains Ga,e.g., is InAs/Ga(In)Sb or InAs/Ga(In)Sb/InAs/AlSb. However when theabsorber does not contain Ga, e.g., is InAs/InAsSb orInAs/InAsSb/InAs/AlSb, it is more favorable to use a material orcombination of materials with a lower valence band, such as thep-GaAl(As)Sb alloy, for the p-region and p⁺ contact layers of thedetector.

In other embodiments of the invention, the structure illustrated inFIGS. 11A and 11B can be flipped, such that the n-region is on top andthe p-region is on the bottom. In such alternative embodiments, the sameschematic structure shown in FIG. 11A (or FIG. 11B) may be employed,where the bottom contacting layer 1105 is a p+ contacting layer such asp⁺-GaSb, p⁺-GaAl(As)Sb, or some other suitable, material, rather than ann+ contacting layer; 1110 is a p-region, which may be p-GaSb,p-GaAl(As)Sb, or some other suitable p-type material, rather than ann-region; 1111 is again the thin active absorber region; 1112 is ann-region, which may be an n-InAs/AlSb superlattice or some othersuitable n-type material, rather than a p-region; and 1113 is an n⁺ topcontacting layer, which may be of an n⁺ superlattice, n⁺-InAsSb, or someother suitable n⁺ material, rather than a p⁺ contacting layer.

The waveguide structure further includes a dielectric layer 1106disposed on top of one or more third areas of n⁺ or p⁺ layer 1105 andalong at least one side of the III-V core of the waveguide, and furtherincludes a top metal contact pad 1107 disposed on top of dielectriclayer 1106, and extending to a top of p⁺ n⁺ contact layer 1113 to form atop contact pad. The optical mode for the light propagating in the planeof the structure and within in the hybrid waveguide often residesprimarily within the silicon portion of the hybrid waveguide, althoughsome fraction of the mode overlaps the III-V portion of the hybridwaveguide where it is detected. As in the embodiments described abovefor detecting light that propagates vertically rather than within theepitaxial plane of the structure, any photons absorbed in the III-Vabsorber region of the photodiode, which in this case resides in theIII-V region of the hybrid waveguide, create a photocurrent signal whenan appropriate bias is applied to the top and bottom contacts.

In some embodiments, the overlap of the optical mode, which often hasits greatest concentration in the silicon portion of the waveguide, withthe III-V absorber region can be tuned to an optimal value by adjustingthe thickness of the interposed SiN or another cladding layer. In otherembodiments, the optical mode overlap with the absorber region can betuned by adjusting the width of the passive waveguide below the III-Vactive material. Such an adjustment of the overlap may be advantageous,for example, in cases where a resonant cavity is formed by placinghigh-reflectivity mirrors on each end of the active absorber length inthe plane, or by placing the detector within a ring resonator asdiscussed below.

The maximum quality-factor (Q) of the cavity and the minimum linewidthof the absorption resonance will be limited by the absorbance per passof the optical signal. Therefore, it may be necessary to reduce theabsorbance per pass if high Q and narrow linewidth are to be realizedwith a reasonable cavity length. In other embodiments, the core of thesilicon-based waveguide may employ Ge or a SiGe alloy having low loss inthe wavelength region of interest. Silicon may then be used as theinterposed and lower cladding material, since it has a lower refractiveindex than (Si)Ge, although other materials may also be employed.

As illustrated in FIG. 11A, in many embodiments, the top contact metal1107 should be as narrow as possible (much narrower than the top of theridge) in order to minimize parasitic losses resulting from overlap ofthe propagating optical mode with the top contact metal while stillproviding adequate electrical contact and remaining practical tofabricate by the preferred process using, e.g., optical or e-beamlithography.

A suitable top cladding layer with low refractive index, such asp-Al(Ga)AsSb if the p-region is on top of the photodiode or ann-InAs/AlSb superlattice if the n-region is on top, can be grown abovethe active detector layers 1110-1112 in some cases to minimize modepenetration into the top contact metal. In such cases, the p⁺ or n⁺ topcontacting layer 1113 is grown on top of the top cladding layer toprovide electrical contact with the top metal.

In other embodiments, such as that illustrated in FIG. 11B, the mode canbe confined at the top of the hybrid waveguide by growing the p⁺ or n⁺top contacting layer 1113 to a greater thickness, and then etching mostof it (down to a depth that still allows sufficient current spreadingacross the width of the hybrid waveguide) to a much narrower ridge width(e.g., 1-2 μm) than the rest of the III-V portion of the hybridwaveguide. The narrowness of the top portion of the hybrid waveguidewill then suppress optical penetration into the metal layer 1107 thatresides on top of that layer. In that embodiment, the top metal contactlayer should still be as narrow as possible.

A hybrid waveguide that incorporates a high-performance RCID photodiodethat detects an in-plane optical signal propagating in a waveguide inaccordance with the present invention can be used as the detectionelement of a compact on-chip chemical sensing package that can be used,for example, to sense trace chemical species in a gas sample.

The block diagrams in FIGS. 12A-12D and FIG. 14 schematically illustratean exemplary embodiment of a chemical sensing system incorporating ahybrid waveguide in accordance with the present invention. As describedin more detail below, a chemical sensor in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention includes a series of silicon-basedring resonators that provide sensing via evanescent coupling to a samplegas incident on the resonators in the area designated “sensing area” anda series of hybrid waveguides incorporating RCID photodiodes thatreceive light from the output of each ring resonator in the areadesignated “detection area,” where the resonance wavelength of each RCIDphotodiode is matched to that of the ring resonator from which itreceives light.

In some embodiments, such as the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 12Adescribed below, the sensing area and the detection area are spatiallydistinct, with the ring resonators being formed from silicon-basedwaveguides that feed their output light into hybrid waveguides havingRCID photodiodes incorporated therein. In other embodiments, such as theembodiment illustrated in FIG. 14 described below, the sensing area andthe detection area are combined, with the ring resonators being formedfrom the hybrid waveguides themselves. In either case, suchoptoelectronic elements may be integrated on the same silicon chip, asdiscussed, for example, in Muneeb et al., supra and Wang et al., supra;see also M. J. R. Heck et al., “Hybrid Silicon Photonic IntegratedCircuit Technology,” IEEE JSTQE: Semiconductor Lasers (2013); and U.S.Pat. No. 9,612,398 to I. Vurgaftman et al., “Ultra-Broadband PhotonicIntegrated Circuit Platform.” On-chip chemical sensing systems such asthose illustrated in FIGS. 12 and 14 can be suitable for mass productionof hundreds or thousands of sensors on the same chip. The individualsensors can then be singulated to provide a package that is bothextremely compact and extremely inexpensive.

The block schematics in FIGS. 12A-12D illustrate aspects of a firstexemplary embodiment of such a chemical sensor in accordance with thepresent invention. As illustrated in FIG. 12A, such a sensor can includean IR source 1201, a sensing area 1203, and a detection area 1205, allof which reside on a single chip. In such a sensor, an IR source outputbeam, i.e., IR light output from IR source 1201, is coupled into asuitable silicon-based waveguide such as an Si/SiO₂ waveguide 1202 andthen propagates through the waveguide to sensing area 1203, whichcomprises a series of N silicon-based ring resonators 1203 a, 1203 b,1203 c, 1203 d, etc. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 12A, each of thering resonators is formed in a circular shape so as to form a ringcavity within the waveguide, though other closed loop shapes, e.g., ovalor racetrack shapes, can be used so long as there is low bending lossand a high Q within the ring cavity. Each ring has a slightly differentpropagation length per pass (determined by the diameter in the case of acircular ring) and corresponding resonance wavelength λ₁, λ₂, λ₃, λ₄,etc., so that each ring selectively extracts light at its resonancewavelength from the IR source output beam as it travels throughwaveguide 1202 past the ring.

As described in more detail below, the light extracted from each of theN ring resonators travels through corresponding waveguides 1204 a, 1204b, 1204 c, 1204 d, etc., and is then input into N corresponding hybridwaveguides 1205 a, 1205 b, 1205 c, 1205 d etc. residing in detectionarea 1205 of the same chip. Each of the hybrid waveguides has an RCIDphotodiode 1230 having a thin absorber layer incorporated therein,wherein the RCID photodiode configured to receive and process lightpropagating along the epitaxial plane of the waveguide.

FIGS. 12B, 12C, and 12D further illustrate aspects of the chemicaldetector and hybrid waveguide in accordance with this embodiment of thepresent invention. As illustrated in FIGS. 12B, 12C, and 12D, the hybridwaveguide 1205 a has a tapered end 1215 configured to efficiently couplethe optical signal from silicon waveguide 1204 a and guide the signalinto the hybrid waveguide that contains the RCID photodiode 1205 a. Theuse of tapers to efficiently transfer optical modes that propagate inthe plane between a silicon waveguide and a III-V/silicon hybridwaveguide is discussed, e.g., in A. Spott, E. J. Stanton, N. Volet, J.D. Peters, J. R. Meyer, and J. E. Bowers, IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quant.Electron. 23, 8200818 (2017), “Heterogeneous Integration forMid-Infrared Silicon Photonics.” In many embodiments, the efficiency forcoupling from the silicon-based waveguide into the hybrid waveguide willbe high, in part because in those embodiments most of the mode in thehybrid waveguide resides in the lower silicon portion of the waveguide,hence addition of the upper III-V portion of the hybrid waveguide willinduce only a relatively small perturbation of the optical mode profilewhen the propagating optical mode transfers from the silicon-basedwaveguide to the hybrid waveguide.

As illustrated in FIG. 12D, the hybrid waveguide further includes DBRmirrors 1225 a/1225 b at both ends of the RCID photodiode 1230. The DBRmirrors 1225 a/1225 b form a resonant cavity 1235 that includes thedetector, where the resonant cavity substantially enhances the quantumefficiency of the detector due to the multiple passes that the receivedlight makes through the section of the cavity that includes theabsorber.

Each of the RCIDs 1205 a etc. has a corresponding resonance wavelengthλ_(R1), λ_(R2), λ_(R3), λ_(R4), etc., with the resonance wavelength ofeach RCID being tuned to match the resonance wavelength of thecorresponding ring resonator that couples into that detector. Matchingthe resonance wavelengths of the ring resonator and the detector may beaided, for example, by separate temperature tuning of the two regions ofthe device. In such a case, the resonance enhancement of D* in the RCIDsat a given operating temperature takes full advantage of thespectrally-narrow output of the ring resonators. This is especiallycritical in the context of on-chip chemical sensing, e.g., from a gassource, since this architecture relies on direct physical contactbetween the gas sample and the on-chip sensing area, which would beimpractical if the on-chip detector were to require cryogenic cooling.

As described above, the RCID photodiode in the hybrid waveguide includesan active absorber which is configured to detect light at the resonancewavelength λ_(R1), λ_(R2), λ_(R3), λ_(R4), etc., of the particular RCID.The active absorber can be in any suitable form. In some embodimentsthis active absorber component employs an antimonide-based III-Vmaterial. In other embodiments, the active absorber may be a siliconbolometer, which may be advantageous at longer wavelengths (e.g., beyond7 μm) for which a III-V detector material may have reduced sensitivitywhen the sensing system is operated at a non-cryogenic temperature.

In some embodiments of the invention, the infrared detector has amajority-carrier barrier configuration with a thin absorber region,i.e., an nBn or pBp configuration such as that discussed above withrespect to FIG. 6. In such embodiments, layers 1110-1113 in FIGS. 11Aand 11B are the appropriate layers known in the art to be used for annBn or pBp detector, rather than the layers suitable for a photodiode.Detectors with an nBn or pBp configuration are then suitable for use asdetectors 1205 a, 1205 b, 1205 c, etc., in the on-chip sensor that isillustrated schematically in FIG. 12A-12D.

In operation, the top and/or sides of each ring 1203 a, etc. are exposedto the gas sample to be tested, so as to allow evanescent coupling ofthe optical beam propagating in the ring to the gas sample. Theresonance wavelengths λ₁, λ₂, λ₃, λ₄, etc., of the N ring resonators inthe sensing area may be designed to match or not match (to providereference signals) the absorption lines of one or more gas species ofinterest. It should be noted that while in some embodiments, theresonance enhancement and linewidth narrowing of the optical signalpropagating in the sensing area are provided by ring resonators such asthose depicted in FIG. 12A, in other embodiments, the resonanceenhancement and linewidth narrowing of the optical signal propagating inthe sensing area can be provided by any another suitable resonant cavityconfiguration, such as a linear cavity bounded by mirrors, where thesensing area resides within a resonant cavity formed by placing mirrorson both sides of the propagation pathlength of the sensing area. Inother embodiments, the optical signal to be sensed makes a single passthrough the sensing area and does not enter a resonant cavity.

If none of the gas species in the gas sample absorbs at the resonancewavelength of a given ring, the output from that ring resonator isunattenuated when it is input into its corresponding RCID. On the otherhand, if the sample gas contains a gas species that absorbs light at thering's resonance wavelength, the output from that ring is reduced by anamount related to the concentration of the absorbing gas species, andthe net output from that ring resonator (and thus the input to itscorresponding RCID) reflects that reduction. The optical beam from theIR source can make many round-trip passes around the high-Q ring cavity,with the absorption (if any) of light by the gas being significantlyenhanced by such multiple round-trip passes. Because multiple resonancewavelengths may be tested, multiple species may be detectedsimultaneously as long as their absorption features fall within thebroadband or tunable spectral range of the IR source.

In still other embodiments, which may be combined with one or more ofthe three approaches described above for reducing losses in the topcontact metal, namely making the top contact as laterally narrow aspossible, introducing a top cladding layer, and narrowing the top of theridge, the duty cycle of the contacts along the longitudinal axis of thehybrid waveguide is reduced, as illustrated in FIG. 12D.

In such a case, the hybrid waveguide includes all of the elementsdescribed above with respect to FIG. 12C, but rather than patterning asingle contact that runs along the entire length of the hybridwaveguide, a series of contact stripes 1250 is formed, withnon-contacted regions separating the contact stripes. The contact dutycycle then corresponds to the ratio of the contact length along thelongitudinal axis divided by the total period of the contacted plusnon-contacted lengths. To minimize losses due to overlap of the opticalmode with the contact metal, this duty cycle should be as small aspossible while still allowing the detector bias voltage to be applieduniformly and the signal current to be efficiently collected. Using thisembodiment, the loss in the metal contact will scale about linearly withthe contact duty cycle along the longitudinal axis. In some embodiments,current spreading in the p⁺ or n⁺ top contacting layer 1113 or 1113A inFIG. 11A is great enough to allow a relatively low contact duty cycle,e.g., 10-20%, when the longitudinal length of each contact stripe is onthe order of 1 μm. A similar approach involving low-duty-cycle topcontacts to lower the internal loss was recently applied successfully tointerband cascade lasers, which similarly provide considerable currentspreading in the layers above the active region of the device (theactive gain stages in a laser, by analogy to the absorber region of adetector). See C. D. Merritt, W. W. Bewley, C. L. Canedy, C. S. Kim, M.Kim, M. W. Warren, I. Vurgaftman, and J. R. Meyer, “Distributed-FeedbackInterband Cascade Lasers with Reduced Contact Duty Cycles,” Proc. SPIEProc. 9855, 98550C (2016); see also U.S. Pat. No. 9,923,338 to J. R.Meyer, I. Vurgaftman, C. L. Canedy, W. W. Bewley, C. S. Kim, M. Kim, andC. D. Merritt, entitled “Interband Cascade Lasers with Low-Fill-FactorTop Contact for Reduced Loss.” As in the case of a laser, it isimportant to assure that the period of the low-duty-cycle contact doesnot introduce a parasitic resonance at a wavelength where resonanceenhancement is not desired. One approach to avoiding this is to make thespacing of the low-duty-cycle contacts random rather than periodic.

As noted above, tuning the resonance wavelength for absorption by agiven chemical species may be achieved by varying the temperature of thesensing area, which may be controlled separately from the temperaturesof the source and detection areas. In addition, it will be obvious toone skilled in the art that many other methods for providing sensitivityto the spectroscopic properties of a given gas sample may also beemployed in the sensing area of the invention. For example, the cavitymay be formed by two mirrors bounding a linear detector pathlength, asdiscussed above, or by forming a gas cavity somewhere between the sourceand detection areas of the on-chip sensing system rather than usingevanescent coupling to provide overlap of the optical mode with thesample gas.

The block schematic in FIG. 13 illustrates aspects of an alternativeexemplary hybrid waveguide incorporating an RCID photodiode inaccordance with the present invention, which can be used in a detectorconfiguration such as that shown in FIG. 14 described below. In thisembodiment, an RCID structures for detecting light propagating in theplane resides directly on top of each ring resonator in the sensing areathat evanescently couples to the sample gas, so as to form a singlehybrid waveguide.

As with the embodiment described above with respect to FIG. 11, thehybrid waveguide is formed when a III-V chip containing the activecomponents of an RCID photodiode is bonded to a pre-processed siliconwafer. In this case, the bonded III-V structure is patterned such thateach ring resonator, which is already pre-patterned on the silicon chipbefore the III-V detector material is bonded, has an RCID structureresiding on top of it.

Thus, as illustrated in FIG. 13, a hybrid waveguide in accordance withthis embodiment is formed in the ring resonator sensing area of theon-chip sensor rather than on a straight waveguide that is positionedoutside the sensing area, as depicted in FIGS. 11A and 11B.

This embodiment further comprises a Si substrate 1301, a first, lowerSiN cladding layer 1302, a silicon portion of the core 1303, and anoptional SiN second, interposed cladding layer 1304 above the siliconportion of the core. As in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 11, inthis embodiment, the Si 1303 and SiN interposed cladding layer 1304portions of the waveguide can be patterned to include one or more air ordielectric regions 1309 on each lateral side of the hybrid waveguide tohelp laterally confine the optical mode propagating in the hybridwaveguide and assure that propagation is in a single lateral mode.

In addition, as with the hybrid waveguide described above with respectto FIG. 11A, the hybrid waveguide depicted in FIG. 13 also includes anRCID photodetector comprising an n⁺- or p⁺ bottom contacting layer 1305,an n or p region 1310, a thin active absorber region 1311 (which mayemploy one of the designs discussed above or some other design), a p orn region 1312, and a p⁺ or n⁺ top contact layer 1313.

The waveguide also includes top and bottom metal contact pads 1307/1308.In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 13, both contact pads are locatedoutside the ring so as to allow the inner surface of the ring to beexposed to the sample gas; however, in other embodiments both contactsmay be placed inside the ring while the outer surface is exposed to thesample gas for evanescent coupling to the optical mode. As in thediscussion above related to FIG. 11A, as shown in FIG. 13, the topcontact metal 1307 should be as narrow as possible to minimize parasiticlosses due to overlap of the propagating optical mode with the topcontact metal. In addition, as also discussed above, a top claddinglayer may be grown above the p-region of the photodiode, the topcontacting layer may be grown thicker and then most of it etched to amuch narrower width than the rest of the III-V portion of the ridge tosuppress penetration of the propagating optical mode into the topcontacting metal, and/or a low-duty-cycle top contact may be employed.

Second, interposed cladding layer 1304 separating the Si portion of thering resonator waveguide from the III-V detector portion will generallybe needed when the detector is incorporated into the ring resonator asshown in FIG. 14; otherwise, optical losses due to coupling of theoptical mode propagating in the ring to the absorber layer and n⁺-dopedbottom contact layer would induce too much absorbance per pass for thering resonator to maintain a high Q value when the ring diameter islarge enough to avoid substantial bending loss. A significant advantageof this embodiment in which the detector is built into the hybridwaveguide of the ring resonator is that no separate tunings of the ringresonance wavelength and RCID resonance wavelength are required toassure that they match, since both will automatically have the sameresonance wavelength.

In other “inside-the-ring” embodiments, the RCID can have the structureas illustrated in FIG. 11B, wherein the p⁺ or n⁺ top contacting layer isgrown to a greater thickness and then etched (down to a depth that stillallows sufficient current spreading) to a much narrower ridge width(e.g., 1-2 μm) than the rest of the III-V portion of the hybridwaveguide.

FIG. 14 illustrates aspects of an alternative embodiment of a detectorincorporating an in-plane RCID in accordance with the present invention.In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 14, the ring resonators includethe hybrid waveguide illustrated in FIG. 13, with the RCID detectors ineach hybrid waveguide (corresponding to RCID detectors 1204 a/b/c/d inFIG. 12) residing on top of the ring resonators 1403 a/1403 b/1403c/1403 d, so that the “sensing area” and “detection area” coexist bysharing the same ring resonators formed by the same hybrid waveguides.As a result, in this embodiment, both the sensing cavities and thedetector cavities automatically share the same resonance wavelength λ₁,λ₂, λ₃, λ₄, since they are the same cavity. As with the embodimentillustrated in FIG. 12A, IR output from IR source 1401 propagatesthrough a waveguide 1402 into the ring resonators, where each ringselectively extracts light at its resonance wavelength from the IRsource output beam. However, the sample gas resides only inside (oroutside) each ring rather than on top as well, since the III-V absorberand contact layers of the detector on top of the ring do not allowaccess of the gas to the optical mode propagating within the ring.

In some embodiments of the invention, the infrared detector has amajority-carrier barrier configuration with a thin absorber region,i.e., an nBn or pBp configuration such as that discussed above withrespect to FIG. 6. In such embodiments, the layers 1310-1313 in FIG. 13are the appropriate layers known in the art to be used for an nBn or pBpdetector, rather than the layers suitable for a photodiode. Detectorswith an nBn or pBp configuration are then suitable for use as thedetectors that reside on top of the ring resonators in the on-chipsensor that is illustrated schematically in FIG. 14.

A further consideration, for both infrared detectors that areilluminated vertically as well as those that detect light propagating inthe plane of the epitaxial layers, is the dark current associated withcurrent leakage at the etched sidewalls that define the individualdetecting areas. This parasitic dark current can be especially severe inIII-V detectors employing InAs-rich absorber materials such asInAs—Ga(In)Sb and InAs—InAsSb quantum wells or superlattices, as well asthe bulk InAsSb alloy, since these materials are prone to a high densityof surface states on the exposed etched sidewalls. For a p-type absorbermaterial, these donor-like states induce band bending that results in anelectron inversion layer that can cause excessive leakage and detectornoise associated with electron conduction along the sidewalls.

FIG. 15 schematically illustrates an embodiment of the invention thatwill substantially reduce the tendency of a detector designed to detectphotons propagating in the plane to display any significant surfaceleakage. This configuration is analogous to that illustrated in FIG. 11described above, and so will not be described in detail here for thesake of brevity. However, as described in more detail below, in theembodiment illustrated in FIG. 15, the lateral region of the epitaxialstructure near the etched sidewall surfaces is bombarded with ions, forexample, protons. Recent unpublished experiments at NRL havedemonstrated that bombarding an interband cascade laser (ICL)_structurewith a sufficient dose of energetic protons can strongly suppress thevertical flow of current through the device. See U.S. Patent ApplicationPublication No. 2017/0373472 to J. R. Meyer, I. Vurgaftman, C. L.Canedy, W. W. Bewley, C. S. Kim, C. D. Merritt, M. V. Warren, and M.Kim, entitled “Weakly Index-Guided Interband Cascade Lasers with NoGrown Top Cladding Layer or a Thin Top Cladding Layer.” Furtherunpublished experiments at NRL have shown that, in particular, thecurrent is blocked within the active stages of the ICL rather than theInAs—AlSb superlattice cladding layers or lightly-n-doped GaSb separateconfinement layers. These experiments imply that following ionbombardment the electrical resistance in the GaSb hole injector becomesquite large, most likely due to the formation of n-type traps. Since,proton bombardment appears to induce trapping that strongly suppressesthe hole transport in GaSb, it may be expected that ion bombardment canalso strongly suppress the hole transport in related p-type alloys, suchasp-AlGaSb and p-AlGaAsSb.

The embodiment illustrated in FIG. 15 creates an electrical barrier tosurface leakage currents by using ion bombardment of both outside edgesof the p-region of the III-V structure within the hybrid waveguide toform ion-bombarded regions 1520 adjacent to the etched sidewalls of thep-region, where the ion bombardment strongly suppresses the lateral flowof current into the ion-bombarded regions 1520. The p-regions in thisembodiment of the waveguide may be p-GaSb, p-AlGaSb, p-AlGaAsSb, or someother related alloy or a superlattice employing those p-typeconstituents. Ion bombarding the outside portions of the p-region, e.g.,by protons, to form ion-bombarded regions 1520 will block the lateralflow of current from the top contact to the etched sidewalls of theactive absorber, whereas the photo-induced signal current flowing fromtop to bottom in the non-bombarded region is unimpeded. This willstrongly suppress dark currents at the surface as a source of noise.

Thus, in accordance with this aspect of the present invention, theoutside edges of the p-region of the III-V structure within the hybridwaveguide can be bombarded with ions, e.g., with protons having apredetermined energy and dose, with the extent of the ion bombardmentbeing tailored to provide a predetermined reduction in surface currentleakage in the RCID.

FIG. 15 also shows that the bombarded areas of the p⁺ contact layer,along with part of the p-region, may optionally be etched away tofurther prevent the lateral flow of current to the etched sidewalls ofthe absorber region. Since very little current will flow through thebombarded regions at both lateral sides of the detector, those bombardedregions may optionally be relatively wide, so as to further preventcurrent from reaching the sidewalls that may be more conductive.Therefore, there is a trade-off between a narrow width of the bombardedregions to minimize leakage current within the bombarded regions, and awider width of the bombarded regions to minimize the current thatreaches the sidewalls that may be more conductive. A detector with anarrow bombarded region also consumes less real estate in the overallphotonic integrated circuit. The introduction of ion bombarded regions1520 also provides the option of using wet chemical etching to laterallypattern the III-V portion of the device rather than dry etching such asreactive ion etching, since it is no longer critical that the sidewallsbe nearly vertical. Surface damage and surface leakage currents aregenerally lower when wet etching is used rather than dry etching.

FIG. 16 shows an embodiment analogous to that illustrated in FIG. 14,except that, as in FIG. 15, the lateral regions near the etchedsidewalls of the III-V detector structure are bombarded with ions suchas protons to form ion-bombarded regions 1620, which, like theion-bombarded regions described above with respect to FIG. 15, willstrongly suppress leakage currents, particularly at the sidewalls of adetector device that combines the sensing area and the detector in thesame resonator as in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 13.

In some embodiments of the invention, the infrared detector has amajority-carrier barrier configuration with a thin absorber region,i.e., an nBn or pBp configuration such as that discussed above withrespect to FIG. 6. In such embodiments, 1510-1513 in FIGS. 15 and1610-1613 in FIG. 16 are the appropriate layers known in the art to beused for an nBn or pBp detector, rather than the layers suitable for aphotodiode.

Ion bombardment can similarly be used to suppress leakage currents atthe etched sidewalls of infrared detectors that are photoexcitedvertically rather than in the plane of the epitaxial layers. In thatcase, the introduction of bombarded regions near the etched sidewallsmay suppress leakage currents at the sidewalls of a single-elementdetector, or at the sidewalls of the mesas forming each pixel in anarray. Since ion bombardment will strongly suppress any lateral flow ofcurrent that would induce cross-talk between neighboring pixels in anarray, the individual mesas that form the pixels in the array would nolonger need to be defined by a deep etch through the active absorber,but only by a shallow etch that stops in the p-region above theabsorber. With no etching through the absorber, sidewall leakage withinthe individual mesas of the array would be eliminated completely. As inthe discussions above related to FIGS. 11 and 13, the top contact metal1507 in FIGS. 15 and 1607 in FIG. 16 should be as narrow as possible tominimize parasitic losses due to overlap of the propagating optical modewith the top contact metal. In addition, as also discussed above, a topcladding layer may be grown above the p-region of the photodiode, thetop contacting layer may be grown thicker and then most of it etched toa much narrower width than the rest of the III-V portion of the ridge tosuppress penetration of the propagating optical mode into the topcontacting metal, and/or a low-duty-cycle top contact may be employed.

Numerous variations on these inventive embodiments are possible. Forexample, the IR source can be any suitable IR source, such as abroadband light-emitting device (LED) or amplified spontaneous emission(ASE) device, or a narrow band infrared laser. For example, the sourcecould be an interband cascade light-emitting device (ICLED) such as thatdescribed in C. S. Kim et al., “Improved Mid-Infrared Interband CascadeLight Emitting Devices,” Opt. Engr. 57, 011002 (2018). An ASE sourcecould be provided, for example, by a III-V type-I infrared diode, aninterband cascade, or a quantum cascade active gain region whose hybridwaveguide does not provide sufficient feedback to allow lasing. Withoutfeedback, the injection of a current density above the gain thresholdwill produce output into a relatively broad emission spectrum, but withmuch higher slope efficiency than an LED operating at the samewavelength. A laser source could be provided by a type-I diode,interband cascade, or quantum cascade laser that employs either aFabry-Perot cavity to produce multi-mode output (possibly with aspectral intensity profile that is highly irregular and/or unstable), ora distributed feedback (DFB) cavity that provides output in a singlespectral mode. Optionally, various methods known to the art may be usedto tune the emission wavelength of a single-mode DFB laser. For example,see Okuda et al., supra and Davies et al., supra; see also W. Zhou etal, “Monolithically, widely tunable quantum cascade lasers based on aheterogeneous active region design,” Scientific Reports 6, 25213 (2016).

In other alternatives, the detector with a thin absorber layer mayemploy full depletion of its carriers or any of the other designsdiscussed above. Also, the embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 11 and 14-16employ an n-region below the absorber region of the RCID photodiode anda p-region above the absorber region, whereas in other embodiments thep-region would be situated below the absorber region and the n-regionwould be situated above. In other embodiments, the RCID that detectslight propagating in the plane would employ an nBn or pBp architectureincorporating a very thin absorber region.

The in-plane waveguide in which the optical signal propagates may beformed entirely within the III-V semiconductor from which the activedetector layers are formed, or by bonding to or otherwise combining withsome other material to form a hybrid waveguide. Thin quantum wellinfrared photodetector (QWIP) geometries may be employed in addition tointerband absorber configurations, since intersubband absorption isstrong for in-plane propagation in the transverse magnetic (TM)polarization. A bolometer detector such as a silicon-based bolometerdetector may also be employed. If the hybrid waveguide is silicon-based,several options may be employed for both the core and interposedcladding layers of the silicon-based portion of the waveguide, as longas the resulting waveguide loss is low in the wavelength region ofinterest. Several methods known to the art are available for formingmirrors that reflect light propagating in the waveguide, and othermethods may be employed to form the resonant cavity. Many options arealso available for how the in-plane RCID residing in a III-V or hybridwaveguide may be processed.

Various methods may be employed to assure that the emitter wavelength(if its linewidth is narrow), the ring (or other) resonance wavelengthin the sensing area, and the RCID wavelength are suitably aligned withthe absorption features of the one or more gas species to be sensed. Forembodiments in which the emitter has a broad spectral bandwidth (e.g.,an LED or ASE device), no tuning of its emission peak is required. Otherembodiments may employ a single-mode laser whose emission wavelength canbe tuned into resonance with each of the N ring resonators, one at atime, in its turn. In other embodiments, multiple single-mode lasers arecombined into a single beam, for example, using an arrayed waveguidegrating (AWG) configuration. In still other embodiments, N single-modelasers may separately inject light into N ring resonators, which eitherincorporate detectors into each ring or output their signals into NRCIDs.

Advantages and New Features

The central advantage of the invention is that by placing the entireactive absorber region of a resonant cavity infrared detector within thedepletion region of a p-n junction, the thermal generation noiseassociated with Auger recombination and impact ionization can besubstantially reduced at high operating temperatures and low bias. IfAuger-related thermal generation dominates the dark current, thisprovides a practical means for dramatically reducing the dark-currentdensity at a given operating temperature, or achieving the samedark-current density at a much higher temperature, while providing highdetection quantum efficiency within a narrow spectral band of interest.

To minimize the dark current associated with Auger recombination, whichgenerally dominates when conventional broadband MWIR and LWIRphotodiodes are operated at sufficiently high temperatures and dopingdensities, the band alignments between the conduction-band minima andvalence-band maxima in the absorber region, n-region, and p-region,should be adjusted according to the specific extrinsic doping level andtype, intrinsic carrier concentration, and γ₃ ^(ppn)/γ₃ ^(nnp) ratio forthe given device structure at a given operating temperature.

While resonant-cavity photodetectors sensitive to telecom wavelengths(λ=1.3-1.6 μm) are well known in the prior art, new features of theinvention will make it practical for the first time to extend the highperformance of resonant cavity detectors to longer wavelengths spanningthe SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR bands.

The ultra-thin absorber of the invention substantially reduces darkcurrents, and also opens the material design space to options that arenot feasible using the thick absorber in a conventional broadband IRdetector. For example, some embodiments of the invention employ QWconfigurations that favorably tailor the wavefunction overlap and bandalignments, but which cannot be applied to the thick absorbers ofconventional detectors because of strain accumulation that inducesdislocations. In contrast, the ultra-thin absorber of the invention cantolerate appreciable strain imbalance without compromising materialquality, because the absorber is thinner than the critical thickness forthe particular layer structure. The ultimate limit is obtained forembodiments of the invention in which the entire absorber regionconsists of a single type-II interface such as between InAs and GaSblayers.

The RCIDs of the invention will display higher speed and higheroperating temperatures than conventional IR detectors. The spectralresponse can be tuned with an applied bias, by introducing variablespacers or etch depths to vary the resonance wavelengths for multipledetector mesas on the same chip, or with an external position-tunablemirror. The RCID may be monolithically combined with an optical sourcegrown below it on the same chip, and temporal modulation of the opticalinput can be used to further discriminate against non-optical noisesources.

The discussion above has enumerated a number of alternatives to theexemplary RCID configurations described in the text and figures.Although particular embodiments, aspects, and features have beendescribed and illustrated, one skilled in the art would readilyappreciate that the invention described herein is not limited to onlythose embodiments, aspects, and features but also contemplates any andall modifications and alternative embodiments that are within the spiritand scope of the underlying invention described and claimed herein. Thepresent application contemplates any and all modifications within thespirit and scope of the underlying invention described and claimedherein, and all such modifications and alternative embodiments aredeemed to be within the scope and spirit of the present disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A hybrid waveguide comprising a III-V resonant-cavity infrared detector (RCID) photodiode ridge integrated with a waveguide, the waveguide comprising: a first cladding layer disposed on a substrate; a core layer disposed on the first cladding layer; and a second cladding layer disposed on the core layer; the core layer and second cladding layer being patterned to form air or dielectric regions on each lateral side of the hybrid waveguide, the air or dielectric regions being configured to laterally confine light propagating in the waveguide such that propagation is in a single lateral mode; and the RCID ridge comprising: a p⁺ bottom contact layer disposed on an upper surface of the second cladding layer; a p-type region disposed on a first area of an upper surface of the bottom contact layer; an absorber region having a thickness of less than 100 nm disposed on an upper surface of the p-type region; an n-type region disposed on an upper surface of the absorber region; and an n⁺ top contact layer disposed on an upper surface of the n-type region; the hybrid waveguide further comprising a first distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) grating at a first end and a second DBR grating at a second end, the first and second DBR gratings forming a resonant cavity within the RCID photodiode extending along a length of the hybrid waveguide, the resonant cavity having a resonant wavelength λ_(R); and wherein the RCID photodiode is configured to detect infrared light propagating within the hybrid waveguide, the resonant cavity formed by the first and second DBR gratings being configured to increase an effective absorption path of light having at the resonant wavelength λ_(R) travelling through the hybrid waveguide.
 2. The hybrid waveguide according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second cladding layers is SiN and the core layer is silicon.
 3. The hybrid waveguide according to claim 1, wherein the p⁺ bottom contact layer comprises p⁺-GaSb or p⁺-AlGaAsSb.
 4. The hybrid waveguide according to claim 1, wherein the p-type region comprises p-GaSb or p-AlGaAsSb.
 5. The hybrid waveguide according to claim 1, wherein the n-type region comprises an n-InAs/Al Sb superlattice.
 6. The hybrid waveguide according to claim 1, wherein the n⁺ bottom contact layer comprises n⁺-InAsSb or an n⁺-InAs/AlSb superlattice.
 7. The hybrid waveguide according to claim 1, wherein at least one outside edge of the n-layer is ion-bombarded to form at least one ion-bombardment region having a predetermined extent of ion bombardment, the extent of ion bombardment being tailored to provide a predetermined reduction in surface current leakage in the RCID.
 8. The hybrid waveguide in accordance to claim 1, wherein the top metal contact is much narrower laterally than the top of the RCID ridge.
 9. The hybrid waveguide according to claim 1, wherein the n⁺ top contact layer has a lateral width configured to minimize parasitic losses resulting from overlap of the propagating optical mode with the top contact metal.
 10. The hybrid waveguide according to claim 1, further comprising a top cladding layer having a low refractive index disposed between the n-type region and the n⁺ top contact layer, the top cladding layer being configured to minimize mode penetration into the top contact metal.
 11. The hybrid waveguide according to claim 1, wherein the n⁺ top contact layer is patterned along its longitudinal axis into a series of alternating contact stripes and non-contacted regions to provide a low-duty cycle top electrical contact. 